HARRY E. HOWELL, ENS, USN
Harry Howell '38
Lucky Bag
From the 1938 Lucky Bag:
HARRY EDWARD HOWELL
Ben Avon, Pennsylvania
Pete, Stooge
Our fair-haired son of steel mills and railroads came boiling out from under a pall of smoke riding his broken-down "gillopy" smack bang into "Middie Collitch" leaving a trail of broken hearts behind him. The hearts are still popping, and he is a landmark "draggin'" over the cobblestones of "Old Colonial Crabtown" on hop week-ends. And notice the "Harry" (his pet peeve). He hasn't a smudge on his chest and won't have long on his head. He'll eat all of anything in sight between meals; his tie knot is a religion; he leaves his shaving gear adrift and nearly succumbs at every reveille. He hails from Ben Avon, picked Landon, nearly bilged Plebe Skinny, and has made a raft of friends these past four
Track 2, 1; N*; N Club; Ring Dance Committee; Lieutenant (j.g.).
HARRY EDWARD HOWELL
Ben Avon, Pennsylvania
Pete, Stooge
Our fair-haired son of steel mills and railroads came boiling out from under a pall of smoke riding his broken-down "gillopy" smack bang into "Middie Collitch" leaving a trail of broken hearts behind him. The hearts are still popping, and he is a landmark "draggin'" over the cobblestones of "Old Colonial Crabtown" on hop week-ends. And notice the "Harry" (his pet peeve). He hasn't a smudge on his chest and won't have long on his head. He'll eat all of anything in sight between meals; his tie knot is a religion; he leaves his shaving gear adrift and nearly succumbs at every reveille. He hails from Ben Avon, picked Landon, nearly bilged Plebe Skinny, and has made a raft of friends these past four
Track 2, 1; N*; N Club; Ring Dance Committee; Lieutenant (j.g.).
Loss
From naval aviation historian Richard Leonard via email on February 9, 2018:
Was killed in a flight accident on 24 March 1941. He was in VF-42 assigned to USS Ranger and operating out of NAS Chambers Field, Norfolk. VF-42 had just been re-designated from VS-41 and was formerly a SBU-4 dive bomber squadron and had only been operating F4Fs since the beginning of the month, though transition training started in February. While engaged in section tactics practice, the flotation gear in the wings of his F4F-3 inflated causing him to lose control of the aircraft. Though the devices deflated as he climbed to exert pressure on them, his plane spun to the right and crashed near Chick’s Beach in Princess Anne County, just to the east of Lynnhaven Inlet. This accident was the impetus for removal and discontinuation of the floatation gear, a concept that was a holdover from the biplane era.
- NAS Pensacola attached for HTA flight training, 6/24/1940;
- NAS Pensacola designated NA # 6979, 12/16/1940;
- VF-42 NAS Norfolk KIFA F4F-3 crash off Chick's Beach, Princess Anne, VA
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Harry attended Kiskiminetas school, Carnegie Tech and the University of Pittsburgh. His father Harry was chief clerk to the superintendent of passenger transportation of the Pennsylvania Railroad. His mother was Fannie, sister Margaret, and brother Lt. John George Howell (‘30.)
He was married in September 1940 in Pittsburgh.
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.
July 1938
LT William Pennewill '29 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 42)
LTjg Harrington Drake '31 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 4)
LTjg Frederick Schrader '35 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 4)
January 1939
LT William Pennewill '29 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 42)
LTjg Harrington Drake '31 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 4)
LTjg Frederick Schrader '35 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 4)
October 1939
LTjg David Taylor, Jr. '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 4)
LTjg Richard Bull, Jr. '36 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 41)
June 1940
LT Finley Hall '29
LT Lance Massey '30
LT Charles Ostrom '30
LTjg George Bellinger '32
LTjg Martin Koivisto '32
LTjg Daniel Gothie '32
1LT Floyd Parks '34
LTjg Charles Ware '34
LTjg Jack Ferguson '35
LTjg Joel Davis, Jr. '35
LTjg Francis Maher, Jr. '35
LTjg John Powers '35
LTjg Robert Strickler '32 (Training Squadron (VN) 5D8)
LT William Townsend '32 (Training Squadron (VN) 5D8)
LTjg Dewitt Shumway '32 (Training Squadron (VN) 1D8)
LTjg William Widhelm '32 (Training Squadron (VN) 5D8)
November 1940
CDR William Sample '19
LT William Pennewill '29
LT Finley Hall '29
LT John Yoho '29
LT Lance Massey '30
LT George Bellinger '32
LT Martin Koivisto '32
LT John Spiers '32
LT Daniel Gothie '32
LT Dewitt Shumway '32
LT Albert Major, Jr. '32
LTjg John Phillips, Jr. '33
ENS Frank Peterson '33
LTjg Charles Brewer '34
LTjg Walker Ethridge '34
CAPT Floyd Parks '34
LTjg Charles Ware '34
LTjg Frank Whitaker '34
LTjg Philip Torrey, Jr. '34
LTjg George Nicol '34
LTjg Victor Gadrow '35
LTjg Richard Stephenson '35
LTjg Allan Edmands '35
LTjg Roy Krogh '36
LTjg Porter Maxwell '36
LTjg Richard Hughes '37
LTjg Frank Henderson, Jr. '37
LTjg John Thomas '37
LTjg John Boal '37
ENS Eric Allen, Jr. '38
ENS James Ginn '38
ENS Oswald Zink '38
ENS Frank Case, Jr. '38
ENS Howard Fischer '38
ENS Edmundo Gandia '38
ENS Charles Reimann '38
ENS Howard Clark '38
ENS Roy Hale, Jr. '38
ENS Leonard Thornhill '38
ENS Osborne Wiseman '38
ENS John Eversole '38
ENS Jep Jonson '38
ENS Roy Green, Jr. '38
ENS Marion Dufilho '38
2LT James Owens '38
ENS William Brady '38
ENS Charles Anderson '38
ENS Carl Holmstrom '38
ENS Charles King '38
2LT John Maclaughlin, Jr. '38
ENS William Tate, Jr. '38
2LT Douglas Keeler '38
ENS Harry Bass '38
ENS John Kelley '38
ENS John Erickson '38
ENS William Lamberson '38
ENS Donald Smith '38
ENS Frank Quady '38
ENS Richard Crommelin '38
ENS Robert Seibels, Jr. '38
ENS Alphonse Minvielle '38
Harry is one of 72 members of the Class of 1938 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
