DONALD R. BRIED, LT, USN

Donald Bried '40

Date of birth: April 16, 1916

Date of death: February 24, 1943

Age: 26

Lucky Bag

From the 1940 Lucky Bag:

DONALD RAYMOND BRIED

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Joe

Don, known to many as Joe, took a roundabout path to arrive in the Navy, got here a little late but appears to be doing very well despite it. He must have done a good job of preparation, because his life at Bancroft Hall has been unusually smooth. Academics never worried him, as his standing will indicate. Other trials never seemed to materialize. If he fulfills the duties of an officer in the same effortless, smooth manner he has exhibited here, and continues to be a friend to all in every sense of the word, his career will be highly successful. We, his roommates, see no reason why it will not be.

Boat Club; Radio Club; Spanish Club; Basketball N.A., 4, 3, 2, 1; Press Gang; Star 4; Track 4; 2 Stripes.

DONALD RAYMOND BRIED

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Joe

Don, known to many as Joe, took a roundabout path to arrive in the Navy, got here a little late but appears to be doing very well despite it. He must have done a good job of preparation, because his life at Bancroft Hall has been unusually smooth. Academics never worried him, as his standing will indicate. Other trials never seemed to materialize. If he fulfills the duties of an officer in the same effortless, smooth manner he has exhibited here, and continues to be a friend to all in every sense of the word, his career will be highly successful. We, his roommates, see no reason why it will not be.

Boat Club; Radio Club; Spanish Club; Basketball N.A., 4, 3, 2, 1; Press Gang; Star 4; Track 4; 2 Stripes.

Obituary

From History of Class of 1940:

The significant dates and events in his all too brief life are substantially as follows. He was a native Oklahoman, born in April of 1916 in Oklahoma City. After graduation from Classen High School in 1934, he attended the University of Oklahoma for a year, then worked for the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C. for another year while awaiting an appointment to the United States Naval Academy. He entered the latter with the class of 1940.
He is best remembered as a good and dependable friend, a considerate roommate of a cheerful and tolerant disposition with a wry and entertaining sense of humor. He was an excellent student in the first quarter of his class, and ever available to help the less talented. He was of a curious mind and involved himself in a variety of activities, sports and clubs. He was fascinated by classical music. Somewhere along the way he picked up the nickname "Joe", though the source is lost in antiquity. He had his share of faults and weaknesses, no doubt, but they too are lost in that same haze of passing years.
In June, 1940, "Joe" reported to the light cruiser USS BROOKLYN in the Pacific and spent two years aboard during the final year and a half of peace and the early months of U.S. involvement in World War II. In June of 1942, he returned from the western Pacific to begin flight training, but first was married to a charming young woman, Alice Grenelle Reid of Washington, D.C.
By February of 1943, Don had won his wings and was to return to Washington on leave. On the morning of the 24th, however, a bizarre aircraft landing accident at Cecil Field, Florida, ended those plans and all plans for the future. He walked away from the accident, apparently unharmed, but collapsed within minutes and died almost immediately of spinal injuries.
A son, Donald R. Bried II, was born prematurely that day and survives. Alice Bried, never remarried, died in 1962. Like her husband, she is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Along with so many of his classmates and contemporaries, Donald Raymond Bried was caught up in and destroyed by an inexorable war long before he could fully realize his considerable potential. He was less than twenty-seven years of age.

Donald has a memory marker in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag

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.