IRVEN A. HISSOM, CAPT, USMC
Irven Hissom '49
Lucky Bag
From the 1949 Lucky Bag:
Irven A. Hissom
Washington, Pennsylvania
To hold the interest of the "Bear", one had only to talk of football or the Marine Corps. He came to Navy with twenty-two months as a gyrene pfc. tucked under his belt, and immediately set out to make plenty of competition for linesmen of opponents' football teams. When he wasn't actually playing, it was a sure bet that he was passing on some of the lore of the game to less endowed classmates. "Bear" never took a strain with the academics that plagued the rest of us, and liked nothing better than to give his sack a workout. Although he broke many hearts, seldom did he drag here in Crabtown—too much work to keep within the schedules. Needless to say, the Corps is going to see a lot more of the "Bear" during the next twenty years.
Irven A. Hissom
Washington, Pennsylvania
To hold the interest of the "Bear", one had only to talk of football or the Marine Corps. He came to Navy with twenty-two months as a gyrene pfc. tucked under his belt, and immediately set out to make plenty of competition for linesmen of opponents' football teams. When he wasn't actually playing, it was a sure bet that he was passing on some of the lore of the game to less endowed classmates. "Bear" never took a strain with the academics that plagued the rest of us, and liked nothing better than to give his sack a workout. Although he broke many hearts, seldom did he drag here in Crabtown—too much work to keep within the schedules. Needless to say, the Corps is going to see a lot more of the "Bear" during the next twenty years.
Loss
Irven was lost on January 25, 1956 when the "training plane" he was piloting crashed on a routine flight from the Naval Air Station, North Island, California to El Centro. One newspaper reported that his plane cleared the mountains and was downed in the desert. The Los Angeles Times reported on January 30 that “an aircraft tire and wheel and a radio receiver, all of the type used by Skyraider planes, were found washed up on the beach at Torrey Pines and La Jolla.”
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Irven graduated in 1942 at Lehman High School in Canton, Ohio. Entered from Chagrin Falls 1; Football 1, 2, 3, 4; Intramural Basketball 2, 3, 4.
He registered for the draft in June 1943. He was then a student at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio.
In 1940, his father Gail was an installation supervisor for the telephone company, mother Mary, sisters Sarah and Carol, and grandmother Amy.
Per the Washington, D. C., Evening Star, October 30, 1953: Two F9F-5 jet fighters from Cherry Point, N. C., Marine Corps Air Station safely made emergency landings at Quantico Marine Base yesterday with slight damage to one plane.
The pilots, Capt. I. A. Hissom and Second Lt. I. W. Lewis, were forced down by murky weather. Capt. Hissom’s plane blew a tire on landing, but was brought to a standstill without damage. Lt. Lewis plane ran off the runway and was crippled slightly.
On a routine proficiency instrument training flight, the flyers found conditions too bad for the return flight to Cherry Point.
Obituary
From shissem.com:
Irven A. Hissom was born on 19 June 1925 in Mahoning, Ohio; father's name Gail. In the 1930 census of Youngstown, Ohio as Irwin Hissom, 4.
In the 1940 census of Canton, Stark county, Ohio as Irven A. Hissom, 14. He was living with his parents, Gail D. and Mary Hissom. In 1935 he had been residing in Youngstown, Mahoning county, Ohio.
Irven A. Hissom joined the Marine Corps on 5 August 1943. In October 1943 Irven A. Hissom was mustered as a Private in the Second Recruit battalion, Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD), San Diego, California. He must have impressed someone because in the same month he was transferred to the Marine Barracks, Navy Yard, Washington, D.C., where he was to attend the Naval Academy Preparatory School, Naval Training Station, Bainbridge, Maryland.
""Well you can imagine how I felt when I saw [Irven A.] "Whitey" Hissom ['43] down on the ground just like he used to be at Reserve." Jack and Whitey were teammates on the football team at Reserve. Jack's letter continued: "I had pictured him out in the Pacific somewhere and I was bewildered when I saw him . . . We had a swell visit and talked over old times at Reserve." Whitey was also attending the Annapolis prep school. He had been in the barracks next to Jack's for the last eight weeks and it was the first time they had seen each other. "It sure is a small world," he noted." - from "Remembering the Boys" by Lynna Piekutowski
He was still there in April 1945. Irven did attend the Academy, graduating in 1949.
In July 1949 Irven mustered as a Second Lieutenant, awaiting assignment to the Basic School, in Quantico, Virginia. This was, as the name implies, the first of many courses Irven would take to make him into a Marine. In October 1950 Second Lieutenant Irven A. Hissom mustered in B company, Second Tank battalion, Second Marine Division, Fleet Marine Forces, Camp Lejeune.
In July 1951 First Lieutenant Irven A. Hissom was at the Marine Aviation Det in Pensacola, Florida. By January 1953 Irven was in Marine Fighter Squadron 122 in Cherry Point, North Carolina. This unit was flying the F9F Panther. In January 1954 the squadron transferred to the FJ Fury, but I think Irven was already on his way out of the squadron by this time.
In April 1954 Irven was in Fighter Squadron 115, in Korea, flying the F9F. Afterwards he transferred to the Headquarters squadron in El Toro, California.
A reference of 1956 shows "Hissom, Irven Arthur 8-19 June '25 Ohio ?-SecNav Capt. USMC. Died 25 Jan. '56 on authorized training flight near El Centro, Calif." He was buried in Washington, D.C.
He was survived by his wife, Gloria. (Information from March 1956 issue of Shipmate.)
Photographs
From his high school yearbook
Note
His name is occasionally misspelled "Hisson," with an N. The 1949 class history spelled it incorrectly, as did the Lucky Bag above his 1/c biography (though it is correctly spelled in the index).
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