FRED M. PERKINS, CDR, USN

Fred Perkins '06

Date of birth: June 3, 1887

Date of death: December 22, 1924

Age: 37

Lucky Bag

From the 1906 Lucky Bag:

Fred Milton Perkins

Salem, Oregon

"Widow," "Perk"

Tried baseball but was turned down on account of his youth. The youngest man in the class. At first would believe anything, but has grown quite foxy of late. Shaped like an old apple tree. Highly original; fasted four days, set his alarm clock for midnight, then ate six oranges and ten bananas. Champion of the tennis court football team. Wears his plebe clothes at times with a Buster Brown effect. Wants the Pacific station.

Buzzard (1); Class Color Committee; Socker Squad (1); President Anti-cigarette League of Oregon (6, 5), of U. S. N. A. Cigarette Club (4, 3, 2, 1).

Fred Milton Perkins

Salem, Oregon

"Widow," "Perk"

Tried baseball but was turned down on account of his youth. The youngest man in the class. At first would believe anything, but has grown quite foxy of late. Shaped like an old apple tree. Highly original; fasted four days, set his alarm clock for midnight, then ate six oranges and ten bananas. Champion of the tennis court football team. Wears his plebe clothes at times with a Buster Brown effect. Wants the Pacific station.

Buzzard (1); Class Color Committee; Socker Squad (1); President Anti-cigarette League of Oregon (6, 5), of U. S. N. A. Cigarette Club (4, 3, 2, 1).

Loss

Fred was lost on December 22, 1924 when the aircraft he was aboard crashed near San Diego. He was "gunnery officer for the Pacific Fleet" at the time.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

In the crash, he suffered a fractured leg, fractured rib, and punctured lung. He was starting to recover slowly but died a week later.

Fred was born in Grants Pass but spent most of life in Salem. He gave the oration and valedictory at his graduation from the old Washington school in 1902.
He was appointed to the Naval Academy by Representative Tongue.
In late August 1904, Fred was in Boston on the training ship Hartford during the G.A.R. convention. He wrote his parents about marching in the parade and attending a free showing of the latest musical comedy, “Isle of Spice.” He visited the Bunker Hill battleground and the Harvard buildings at Cambridge.
Anchored in Boston were the big cruisers Columbia, Minneapolis, and Des Moines; the battleship Massachusetts and the supply ship Prairie. Each night they were illuminated with hundreds of lights, and their bands played national airs. The Secretary of the Navy came in on his yacht, the Dolphin, and went over the Hartford. Visitors were allowed on board the ships all week. Fred found out his average mark for his recent work on the torpedo boat destroyer Hopkins was 3.5 out of 4.
Fred graduated from the Naval Academy in early February 1906 and returned home. On February 22, Fred and his friend Howard Catlin were in a canoe on the Willamette river when the craft overturned in a treacherous current. Fred tried to help Catlin to shore but was unable to save him. Several people on shore tried to throw a rope to him, but the current was too fast. Fred finally held on to some willows until rescued by a man and his son in a boat.
The very next month, Fred reported to the cruiser Chicago. The newspaper remarked about the short break after graduation was unusual.
In June 1907, Fred was on the gunboat “Princeton” which was docked in Portland for the Fourth of July festivities.
On March 11, 1908, he married Margaret Sutherland in Vancouver, Washington. After his death, she married Randolph Scudder, a naval officer.
In March 1909, Fred and his brother William watched the William Howard Taft inauguration. Fred marched in the inaugural parade, and William was about to begin his studies at the Naval Academy.
Fred was chief aide to Vice Admiral Gleaves who was in charge of all American transports during World War I. In 1918, Fred went to France on a special mission. His ship was under attack for two days, and he was within 800 yards from the Covington when she was torpedoed on July 1, 1918.
Fred was commander of the George Washington which took Woodrow Wilson to Europe and back for the peace council in late 1918 and early 1919. In June 1919, Fred was put in command of the transport Leviathan.
In January 1920, his family lived in Indian Head, Maryland, where he was stationed at the Naval Proving Grounds.
His father William was an accountant and former deputy state treasurer; his mother was Helen. Fred's sisters were Mildred (Mrs. Donald Yantis,) Dorothy Gail, and Helen (Mrs. J. J. Shevlin.) His brothers were William, an alternate to the Naval Academy in 1908 who became a newspaper editor and Philip Benson, an electric inspector.

He was survived by his wife and two children. He is buried in Oregon.

Navy Cross

From Hall of Valor:

The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Commander Fred Milton Perkins, United States Navy, for distinguished service in the line of his profession as Force Engineer and later as Secretary of Cruises and Transport Force and temporarily as Chief of Staff during World War I.
Service: Navy
Division: Cruises and Transport Force

Army Distinguished Service Medal

From Hall of Valor:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Commander Fred Milton Perkins, United States Navy, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I, as Flag Secretary to the Commander, Cruiser and Transport Fleet. Commander Perkins' close cooperation with the Army authorities in the handling of troop ships contributed greatly to the successful outcome of our oversea operations.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 116 (1919)
Service: Navy
Division: Cruiser and Transport Fleet

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.