HUGH H. GOODWIN, JR., ENS, USN
Hugh Goodwin, Jr. '48
Lucky Bag
From the 1948 Lucky Bag:
HUGH HILTON GOODWIN, JR.
San Francisco, California
A world of our Navy blue and gold has always been a dream world to Hugh . . . a Navy Junior . . . raised under the plebe system he will only be happy in the Navy carrying out his greatest ambition ... to be a successful Naval officer. Plebes stormed his room for extracurricular instruction . . . asking questions and getting help...or just listening to his radio. It did not take them long to learn that this remarkable lad . . . never without his U.S.N.A.R. pocket edition . . . was a walking Knight's Seamo and Bluejackets Manual all rolled into one. A hunter ... a fisherman ... a great advocate of the Golden State . . . and if not actually a woman-hater ... at least a Red Mike. Has a keen sense of right and wrong ... a clear understanding of truth and fairness which will win for him great respect and admiration in the future. Youngster cruise taught him what the floating Navy was like . . . second class cruise proved his convictions about there being only one real Navy . . . the one with wings . . . first class cruise verified his beliefs. When there was free time and good weather that fellow with the wicked serve . . . the curly black hair and dark sun tan was Hugh. He could always give the better tennis players a good workout.
He graduated from the 11th Company with the class of 1948-B in June 1948. (The top half of the class academically, designated 1948-A, graduated in June 1947 as the last wartime-accelerated class.)
HUGH HILTON GOODWIN, JR.
San Francisco, California
A world of our Navy blue and gold has always been a dream world to Hugh . . . a Navy Junior . . . raised under the plebe system he will only be happy in the Navy carrying out his greatest ambition ... to be a successful Naval officer. Plebes stormed his room for extracurricular instruction . . . asking questions and getting help...or just listening to his radio. It did not take them long to learn that this remarkable lad . . . never without his U.S.N.A.R. pocket edition . . . was a walking Knight's Seamo and Bluejackets Manual all rolled into one. A hunter ... a fisherman ... a great advocate of the Golden State . . . and if not actually a woman-hater ... at least a Red Mike. Has a keen sense of right and wrong ... a clear understanding of truth and fairness which will win for him great respect and admiration in the future. Youngster cruise taught him what the floating Navy was like . . . second class cruise proved his convictions about there being only one real Navy . . . the one with wings . . . first class cruise verified his beliefs. When there was free time and good weather that fellow with the wicked serve . . . the curly black hair and dark sun tan was Hugh. He could always give the better tennis players a good workout.
He graduated from the 11th Company with the class of 1948-B in June 1948. (The top half of the class academically, designated 1948-A, graduated in June 1947 as the last wartime-accelerated class.)
Loss
Hugh was lost on August 4, 1949, when the Hellcat he was piloting collided with another over the Gulf of Mexico during training. The Class of 1922 column in the October 1949 issue of Shipmate said he was "so near to the completion of his flight training that he will be awarded a posthumous designation as a Naval Aviator."
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Hugh attended Coronado High School and San Francisco Junior College. In the 1941 Coronado yearbook, “Bill McCarson leaves his front teeth to Hugh Goodwin.”
He was appointed to the Naval Academy from the 5th congressional district of Louisiana. During the Naval Academy, he received class numerals in tennis and participated in company soccer and battalion wrestling. In his fourth class year, he was qualified as an expert rifleman. In April 1948, he was one of the midshipmen who visited the West Point Military Academy in an exchange program.
His father’s family was from Monroe, Louisiana.
From "The White House Doctor: My Patients Were Presidents: A Memoir" by Connie Mariano, a story of her father, a Navy steward:
My father's favorite admiral, as mentioned earlier, was Vice Admiral Hugh Goodwin Sr., who in retrospect was a father figure to him. The Goodwin family was picture-perfect: the dashing, well-decorated three-star admiral; his sophisticated wife, Eleanor; their bright and articulate daughter, Sydney; and their handsome young son, Hugh Jr., a Navy pilot. Their perfect life, however, was shattered one evening at dinnertime when my father took a phone call from Navy headquarters. Hugh Jr. had been killed when his plane collided with another plane during operations off an aircraft carrier at sea. The tragedy was ironic in that the other pilot killed was also the son of a Navy admiral who, like the vice admiral, had flown numerous missions unharmed in wartime. Both admirals lost their only sons on a routine mission in peacetime.
Hugh Jr. was survived by his parents and his sister, Sidney Mary Goodwin (married George Marshall Brown).
He is not listed in the Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps of April 1, 1949 for some reason. Have been unable to find the 1948 edition.
Other
From "The Men of the Gambier Bay:"
Prior to being elevated to the rank of Vice Admiral, then-Captain Hugh Goodwin Sr. became the commanding officer of the escort carrier USS Gambier Bay CVE-73 when the ship was commissioned at Astoria, Oregon on 28 December 1943,. He conducted sea trials of the ship and saw the ship's first and only squadron VC-10 come aboard.
His son Hugh Goodwin Jr. visited him aboard ship to learn the ropes of a commanding officer and observe flight operations from the bridge of the Gambier Bay. [Photo below]
Photographs
1948-B 11th Company from the Lucky Bag
From his high school yearbook
From The Monroe News Star on June 2, 1948
Hugh Jr., wearing the aviator's jacket of his father (left), aboard Gambier Bay. Photo courtesy Mike Pyzdrowski.
Related Articles
Harley Harris, Jr. '48 and John Wick '48 were also in 11th Company.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
