HAROLD V. B. MADSEN, LCDR, USN
Harold Madsen '25
Lucky Bag
From the 1925 Lucky Bag:
Harold Vester Broe Madsen
Los Angeles, California
"Mohawk" "Maddy"
HERE you have the "Mohawk" from California, and proud of it, too. "Now that California track team that came East, and won the inter-collegiates with six men—and those California oranges—and that city of Los Angeles," we have heard about since Plebe summer. From the time of his first regulation hair cut, his famous nickname has remained with him. A snake? No, not around Crabtown, but we know from those numerous pink letters he gets every week that his heart is lost to someone. He has evaded the W. O.'s and kept off the pap with his usual good luck from the time when he used to catch his morning skag; and he is a most generous individual. If you don't believe it, ask him about the night in New York, after an Army-Navy game, when he stood on a street corner passing out dollar bills.
Easy-going, always happy, except when reveille sounds, a true friend, and a man all the way through.
Star (4, 3, 2); B-Squad Football (4); Class Football (3, 2); Class Water-Polo (2); Choir (4, 3, 2, 1); Track Squad (2, 1); Navy Numerals (2); Co. Representative.
Harold Vester Broe Madsen
Los Angeles, California
"Mohawk" "Maddy"
HERE you have the "Mohawk" from California, and proud of it, too. "Now that California track team that came East, and won the inter-collegiates with six men—and those California oranges—and that city of Los Angeles," we have heard about since Plebe summer. From the time of his first regulation hair cut, his famous nickname has remained with him. A snake? No, not around Crabtown, but we know from those numerous pink letters he gets every week that his heart is lost to someone. He has evaded the W. O.'s and kept off the pap with his usual good luck from the time when he used to catch his morning skag; and he is a most generous individual. If you don't believe it, ask him about the night in New York, after an Army-Navy game, when he stood on a street corner passing out dollar bills.
Easy-going, always happy, except when reveille sounds, a true friend, and a man all the way through.
Star (4, 3, 2); B-Squad Football (4); Class Football (3, 2); Class Water-Polo (2); Choir (4, 3, 2, 1); Track Squad (2, 1); Navy Numerals (2); Co. Representative.
Loss
Harold died on June 23, 1940 of peritonitis; he had his appendix removed 10 days earlier.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Harold graduated from Polytechnic High School in Long Beach in 1920. “Be merry if you are wise.”
Harold was over six feet tall and weighed about 185 pounds. He was appointed to the Naval Academy by both Senators Phelan and Johnson.
On September 30, 1925, Harold married Katherine Edith Lightfoot in Los Angeles.
In June, 1930, he was at The Chemical Warfare School at the Edgewood Arsenal in Maryland.
His father Niels was a railroad freight clerk, mother Bodil, and brother Herbert. His parents were born in Denmark and were naturalized in 1881.
He was a member of the construction corps.
He was survived by his wife, Emma, and daughter Joanna (born ~1930 in Massachusetts); he is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. (Information on cause of death and family details from death certificate located by historian Kathy Franz.)
Photographs
From his high school yearbook
From The Los Angeles Times on June 9, 1925
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.
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Illness is not a criteria for inclusion in Memorial Hall.
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