GREER A. DUNCAN, JR., LCDR, USN

Greer Duncan, Jr. '37

Date of birth: March 7, 1914

Date of death: March 26, 1944

Age: 30

Lucky Bag

From the 1937 Lucky Bag:

GREER ASSHETON DUNCAN, JR.

Pensacola, Florida

"Dunk" "Snooks" "Mulligan"

"What care I when I can lie and rest,
Kill time and take life at its very best" A member of the famed Washington top-hat, tails, and red ribbon clique, Snooks gets more mail than anyone else in the Academy, although he claims to be a misogynist. He is not a student, but a voracious reader, poet, writer, and amateur archaeologist of no mean ability. Preferring variety to concentration, Dunk is a jack-of-all-athletics. We will find him the life of any party and the center of any gathering.

Football 4, 3, 2. Lacrosse 4, 3, 1. Boat Club. Wrestling 4, 1. Radio Club. Two Stripes.

GREER ASSHETON DUNCAN, JR.

Pensacola, Florida

"Dunk" "Snooks" "Mulligan"

"What care I when I can lie and rest,
Kill time and take life at its very best" A member of the famed Washington top-hat, tails, and red ribbon clique, Snooks gets more mail than anyone else in the Academy, although he claims to be a misogynist. He is not a student, but a voracious reader, poet, writer, and amateur archaeologist of no mean ability. Preferring variety to concentration, Dunk is a jack-of-all-athletics. We will find him the life of any party and the center of any gathering.

Football 4, 3, 2. Lacrosse 4, 3, 1. Boat Club. Wrestling 4, 1. Radio Club. Two Stripes.

Loss

Greer was lost when USS Tullibee (SS 284) was sunk by her own torpedo during an attack on a Japanese convoy near the Palau Islands on March 26, 1944. He was the boat's Executive Officer.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Greer was born in Quantanamo, Cuba. He married Helen Ann Bisset on January 17, 1941, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
His father was a Navy commander and public works officer at NAS Pensacola 1932-1934. His mother was Louise, and his sister was Marie. In January 2, 1920, the family lived in Tanners Creek, Virginia. Also in the January 30, 1920 census, Greer was in Alexandria, Louisiana, with his sister staying with his uncle H. J. Duncan’s family.

His wife was listed as next of kin. He is listed on the tablets of the missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

Career

From the now-broken link http://www.fleetorganization.com/subcommandersclassyear3.html:

Duty USS Marblehead (CL-12) 1 Jul 1939

ordered to Submarine School New London 1 Oct 1939

Under Instruction Submarine School New London 1 Jul 1940

Duty including Communications Officer USS Bonita (SS-165) 1 Nov 1940 - 1942

Executive Officer USS Bonita (SS-165) 30 Sep 1942

Duty USS Sunfish (SS-281) 18 Oct 1942

Captain USS S-23 (SS-128) 31 Aug 1943 - 31 Oct 1943

Executive Officer USS Tullibee (SS-284) Dec 1943 - Mar 1944

Ensign 3 Jun 1937

Lieutenant (j.g.) 3 Jun 1940

Lieutenant (T) 2 Jan 1942

Lieutenant Commander (T) 1 Jul 1943

Greer had command of USS S-23 (SS 128) from August to November 1943, when the boat was "providing sound school services" in the San Diego area.

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.