FOLLETT BRADLEY, JR., 1LT, USA
Follett Bradley, Jr. '38
Follett Bradley, Jr. was admitted to the Naval Academy from Texas on June 19, 1934 at age 17 years 10 months. He resigned from the Naval Academy on May 14, 1936, he was "Recommended for dismissal. Resignation accepted."
Lucky Bag
"Follett Bradley, Jr.," from Texas, is listed in the 1938 Lucky Bag on the page "Victims of the System: Third Battalion".
Loss
From Arlington National Cemetery.net:
U.S. OBSERVER IN BRITAIN KILLED IN PLANE ACCIDENT
WASHINGTON, June 24, 1941The death of Lieutenant Follett Bradley, Jr., 24 years of age, of the United States Air Corps, on Sunday in an airplane accident near Catterick, Yorkshire, England, was announced by the War Department today.
Lieutenant Bradley, who was among the junior officer observers sent to Britain last April, is the son of Brigadier General Follett Bradley, who is on duty at Borinquen Field, Puerto Rico.
No details of the accident that caused the young officer's death were made public.
Built for USAAF as B-17C 40-2053. Diverted to RAF as AN522 on 19 February 1941. Crashed 22 June 1941: Royal Air Force Boeing Fortress I, AN522, of No. 90 Squadron, RAF West Raynham, flown by F/O J. C. Hawley, breaks up in mid-air over Yorkshire during a high altitude flight experimental flight.
Sole survivor, Bill Stewart, a medical officer from RAE Farnborough, reports that the bomber entered a cumulo-nimbus cloud at 33,000 feet (10,100 m), became heavily iced-up with hailstones entering through open gunports, after which control was lost, the port wing detached, and the fuselage broke in two at 25,000 feet (7,600 m).
Survivor Bill Stewart, who was in the aft fuselage, was able to bail out at 12,000 feet (3,700 m).
He had been in England "about a month" and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was survived by his father, Follett Bradley, Sr. USNA '10; his mother seems to have died when Follett, Jr. was about 10 years old.
The January-February 1996 issue of Shipmate had a slightly different story:
From Dan Henry comes an interesting fact...as to who was the first loss to enemy action of our total Class. Follett Bradley Jr. was Dan's roommate until he left USNA at the end of Youngster year. Bradley joined the Army Air Corps, got his wings, and was commissioned about our First-Class year. Then to WWII as an U.S. Army Air Corps observer and with the RAF. Returning from a bombing mission over the continent on 24 June 1941, he was killed in the crash of his damaged plane at Yorkshire England. So, it looks like Follett Bradley Jr. was our first loss in WWII. Incidentally, his father was a classmate of Peter Berry's father and also Miles Refo's father. The picture of Bradley Follett in an Army uniform is probably also a first for our records.
Photographs
From the Capital Journal on June 25, 1941. Located by Kathy Franz.
From the January-February 1996 issue of Shipmate.
Memorial Hall Error
Follett is not listed with his classmates in Memorial Hall. This omission was discovered while reviewing the January-February 1977 issue of Shipmate, which mentioned him in passing while discussing his father's career.
The Register of Alumni lists the date he was reported lost (6/24/1941), his rank, "Yorkshire, England" and USAF (though this organization didn't exist until several years after he died).
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
