ELWOOD A. COBEY, JR., LT, USN
Elwood Cobey, Jr. '41
Lucky Bag
From the 1941 Lucky Bag:
ELWOOD A. COBEY, JR.
Washington, D.C.
They didn't make 'em big or tough enough in Washington, so the Mighty Mite dropped over with that good natured chip on his shoulder to see if the forty-eight states could produce anyone a good little man couldn't handle. He hasn't had a chance to find out because his sunny nature develops only friends, and he can't help smiling at his own swagger. Even so, he pursues his friendly feuds with such intensity that the biggest of us respect his terrible threats.
He studies enough, but he doesn't let it interfere with the enjoyment of life, the development of those mighty muscles, brushing those pearly teeth, and dragging those charming girls.
The Little Man can always see the humorous side. At times he even seems a little "wacky," but behind that gay exterior lurks a determination to succeed that has obtained for him everything he has wanted. Sometimes he gets things the hardest way, but he gets them and makes friends doing it. He will be present when part of '41 pins on wings.
Battalion Gym 4, 3, 2, 1; Track 4; Boat Club 3, 2, 1; Sub Squad 4.
The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.
ELWOOD A. COBEY, JR.
Washington, D.C.
They didn't make 'em big or tough enough in Washington, so the Mighty Mite dropped over with that good natured chip on his shoulder to see if the forty-eight states could produce anyone a good little man couldn't handle. He hasn't had a chance to find out because his sunny nature develops only friends, and he can't help smiling at his own swagger. Even so, he pursues his friendly feuds with such intensity that the biggest of us respect his terrible threats.
He studies enough, but he doesn't let it interfere with the enjoyment of life, the development of those mighty muscles, brushing those pearly teeth, and dragging those charming girls.
The Little Man can always see the humorous side. At times he even seems a little "wacky," but behind that gay exterior lurks a determination to succeed that has obtained for him everything he has wanted. Sometimes he gets things the hardest way, but he gets them and makes friends doing it. He will be present when part of '41 pins on wings.
Battalion Gym 4, 3, 2, 1; Track 4; Boat Club 3, 2, 1; Sub Squad 4.
The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.
Obituary
From Find A Grave:
Elwood Alexander Cobey, Jr. was the son of an officer in the US Navy. In 1936, he received an appointment to the US Naval Academy. He graduated in March of 1941. The graduation, that year, was pushed up from June, to 7 February, 1941, because of the efforts being made to expand the Navy.
On 7 December, 1941, then Ensign E.A. Cobey was aboard the destroyer USS Breese, moored on the dock at Ford Island, in Pearl Harbor. Anti-aircraft fire from the Breese was credited with damaging several Japanese aircraft and at least one midget submarine, but the Breese and it's crew were unharmed.
Newspaper article: Evening Star (Washington, DC), April 30, 1943
Lt. Elwood A. Cobey, Jr., U.S.N., son of Capt. Cobey, of the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics, who lives at 3201 Thirty-third place N.W., was killed in a plane crash yesterday near the Dallas (Tex.) Naval Air Station, the Associated Press reported.
Lt. Cobey was born in Washington in 1919. After attending public schools he went to Sidwell Friends School, where he played on the football team, and then went to the Naval Academy, graduating in 1941. Lt. Cobey served on a destroyer and then was detailed to the Dallas Air Station.
He is survived by his parents and two sisters, the Misses Betty B. Cobey, a senior at Sidwell Friends School, and Margaret B. Cobey, a student at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
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.
April 1941
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