DEWITT A. HARRELL, CDR, USN

Dewitt Harrell '35

Date of birth: October 16, 1912

Date of death: March 5, 1945

Age: 32

Lucky Bag

From the 1935 Lucky Bag:

DEWITT ALLEN HARRELL

Scotland Neck, North Carolina

"D." "Allen" "Al"

AEROPLANE models, the violin, stars, footballs, and gloves, all have their place in this young man's life, although he excels in the first three. Most of his leisure time is thus spent, except when some good literature, such as the Cosmo, American, or Post, is at hand. He came to us as North Carolina's own "Boy Edison" in the summer of '31. He soon got into the spirit of things, learning to gripe with the best. Academics brought no terrors, and he showed most of us the way, in Bull especially. The Youngster Cruise showed he had that famous power with the femmes, (and in grease), and he has kept it. Got a blind drag? He'll be glad to take it!

Class Football 4, 3, 1. Track 4. Boxing 4, 3, 2, Numerals. N.A. 10 2, 1. Orchestra 4, 3. Lucky Bag. Stars 4, 3, 2, 1. 4 Stripes.

DEWITT ALLEN HARRELL

Scotland Neck, North Carolina

"D." "Allen" "Al"

AEROPLANE models, the violin, stars, footballs, and gloves, all have their place in this young man's life, although he excels in the first three. Most of his leisure time is thus spent, except when some good literature, such as the Cosmo, American, or Post, is at hand. He came to us as North Carolina's own "Boy Edison" in the summer of '31. He soon got into the spirit of things, learning to gripe with the best. Academics brought no terrors, and he showed most of us the way, in Bull especially. The Youngster Cruise showed he had that famous power with the femmes, (and in grease), and he has kept it. Got a blind drag? He'll be glad to take it!

Class Football 4, 3, 1. Track 4. Boxing 4, 3, 2, Numerals. N.A. 10 2, 1. Orchestra 4, 3. Lucky Bag. Stars 4, 3, 2, 1. 4 Stripes.

Loss

Dewitt was lost on March 5, 1945 in a plane crash near NAS Miami, Florida.

Other Information

From UNC Alumni Site:

Harrell entered the University from Scotland Neck High School, where he had been selected to receive a scholarship offered by Thomas Alva Edison to young men whom he hoped would carry on his inventive work. He was enrolled at UNC from 1929 until 1931, when he transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy.
While at the academy, he was selected as one of the battalion commanders for the first term of 1933. He also received a fourth stripe [on his sleeve] in recognition of his achievement in winning the highest honor in his class of 600, an award voted on by officers and his classmates. Upon his graduation from the academy, he received a "star" in recognition of his academic and other achievements.
After graduation, Harrell was stationed aboard the battleship California for two years. He continued his education with postgraduate training in aeronautical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He rose to the rank of commander and was head of the assembly and repair department of the Miami Naval Air Station, when he was killed in the crash of his plane near Perry Field on March 5, 1945.
Source:GAA Alumni Records

He was designated naval aviator #6361 in 1940. He is buried in North Carolina.

Career

Dewitt served on USS California until going to Pensacola naval station to become an aviator; he was subsequently assigned to Scouting Squadron 71. He attended the postgraduate program at USNA during 1942-1943 academic year and received a master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from California Institute of Technology on June 30, 1944.

Dewitt was promoted to LT(jg) on June 6, 1938 and LT on August 1, 1941, then LCDR on May 1, 1943 and then Commander on March 1, 1944.

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.