JACK C. RICHARDSON, LT, USN

Jack Richardson '19

Date of birth: June 18, 1897

Date of death: June 8, 1933

Age: 35

Lucky Bag

From the 1919 Lucky Bag:

Jack Carpenter Richardson

Berkeley, California

"OH, there's that nice Mr. Richardson! Will you bring him around? I have something awful important to tell him." You fall, haul up the object of such frank interest, and for your pains are thenceforth sans femme. But don't blame Jack; he has to go to hops to give the girls a goodtime, and if they enjoy it more than you do—well, you ought to be glad you aren't absolutely tongue-tied and club-footed. They all know Jack, for there ain't no man living what can pass him on the ballroom floor.

When Jack starts to step, open-close, puts on that greasy grin, and starts his line of bum puns—well, he is too adorable for anything. He and his partner in crime, Willie Sample, manage to fuss everywhere, even in that town, which is saying a lot.

Jack has put up a stiff fight with Red Waller and Late-Blast Harry to carry off the Anchor honors, but he has managed to get through somehow without much worrying, for worry isn't in his make-up. Also he has run Rockey a close race for being the last man to formations on all occasions.

Did you ever notice the angle at which he wears his cap? Jack is non-reg, not quite seriously, but just pleasantly so. When Richardson got frapped down for nonreg shoes, he explained to Max that it was all very much of a mistake. He meant to have the shoes in his laundry bag instead of under the bed.

"Say, Bill, I guess we had better go over to Chapel instead of going out in town to church this morning. You know she said they were coming in for Chapel."

Honors: Buzzard; Hop Committee 3, 1; Chairman 1.

The Class of 1919 was graduated on June 6, 1918 due to World War I. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Jack Carpenter Richardson

Berkeley, California

"OH, there's that nice Mr. Richardson! Will you bring him around? I have something awful important to tell him." You fall, haul up the object of such frank interest, and for your pains are thenceforth sans femme. But don't blame Jack; he has to go to hops to give the girls a goodtime, and if they enjoy it more than you do—well, you ought to be glad you aren't absolutely tongue-tied and club-footed. They all know Jack, for there ain't no man living what can pass him on the ballroom floor.

When Jack starts to step, open-close, puts on that greasy grin, and starts his line of bum puns—well, he is too adorable for anything. He and his partner in crime, Willie Sample, manage to fuss everywhere, even in that town, which is saying a lot.

Jack has put up a stiff fight with Red Waller and Late-Blast Harry to carry off the Anchor honors, but he has managed to get through somehow without much worrying, for worry isn't in his make-up. Also he has run Rockey a close race for being the last man to formations on all occasions.

Did you ever notice the angle at which he wears his cap? Jack is non-reg, not quite seriously, but just pleasantly so. When Richardson got frapped down for nonreg shoes, he explained to Max that it was all very much of a mistake. He meant to have the shoes in his laundry bag instead of under the bed.

"Say, Bill, I guess we had better go over to Chapel instead of going out in town to church this morning. You know she said they were coming in for Chapel."

Honors: Buzzard; Hop Committee 3, 1; Chairman 1.

The Class of 1919 was graduated on June 6, 1918 due to World War I. The entirety of 2nd class (junior) year was removed from the curriculum.

Loss

Jack was lost on June 8, 1933 when the plane he was piloting crashed at an airfield near Oceanside, California.

Other Information

From Find A Grave:

Lieut. Richardson of scouting squadron number 2 NAS, San Diego, was killed in the line of duty at the emergency landing field near Oceanside as the plane crashed having struck high tension wires during a landing attempt. Chief Machinist Mate Clarence Frank Glazener died at the same time.
Lieut. Richardson was a qualified pilot of both lighter and heavier than air craft and a qualified submarine commander.
He was survived by his wife Anna, and daughter Barbara.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Jack attended school in Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania before moving to Berkeley, California.
He was named as first alternate to the Naval Academy by Senator Works in July, 1914.
During World War I, he was attached to the destroyer Trippe, which convoyed American troops from Queenstown, Ireland.
Jack married Anne Vallette Evans on October 2, 1920, in Philadelphia. Their daughter Barbara was born March 20, 1923, in Honolulu, and later became Mrs. Lemly.
On October 30, 1923, in Honolulu, Jack and his wife hosted a dinner for members of the Naval Academy’s Class of 1919. Attending were Lieutenants Charles B. Hunt, Bayard H. Colyear and wife, Robert L. Boller and wife, Eliot H. Bryant and wife, Stuart S. Murray and wife, and John L. Reynolds and wife.
In early May, 1929, Jack flew the Navy No. 2 balloon in the national elimination balloon race which started in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, he flew only 27 miles to Apollo, Pennsylvania. The Navy No. 1 balloon, piloted by Lieut. T. G. W. Settle (‘19,) won the race having passed over North Adams, Massachusetts.
Jack’s father was Henry Reynolds Richardson and his mother was Minnie. In 1910 Philadelphia, his father was a merchandise broker for flowers and candy, and in California in 1920 was a wholesale match company salesman. His mother had her own tie manufacturing business and was a practitioner of Christian Science. His sister Anne died at three months of age in 1909.

Jack is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photographs

From The Los Angeles Times on August 27, 1929
From The Los Angeles Times on August 26, 1929
USS Los Angeles (ZR 3) officers and chief petty officer, circa 1928. Standing (l to r): Chief Boatswain William A. Buckley; Lt. Jack C. Richardson, Navigator; Lt. James B. Carter, Watch Officer; Lt. J. Murray Thornton, Aerology and Watch Officer; Lt. J. Bruce Anderson, Aerology Officer; Ens. Emmett C. Thurman, Asst. Engineering Officer. Seated (l to r): Lt. T. G. W. Settle, Engineering Officer; LCDR. Herbert V. Wiley, Executive Officer; LCDR Charles E. Rosendahl, Commanding Officer; Lt. Roland G. Mayer, First Lieutenant; Lt. Charles E. Bauch.

Graf Zeppelin

He was aboard the German airship Graf Zeppelin as an official observer as that airship travelled on an around-the-world flight, beginning in New Jersey, in 1929. The other US Navy officer aboard was LCDR Charles E. Rosendahl.

From the San Francisco Examiner, August 27, 1929, via researcher Kathy Franz:

Lieut. Jack C. Richardson, youthful American naval observer aboard the Graf Zeppelin, today was dramatically reunited with his parents, Colonel and Mrs. Henry Richardson of Los Angeles.
As soon as the airship’s forward cabin was pulled to the ground, Lieut. Richardson leaped out.
He knew that somewhere in the crowd were his father and mother, whom he had not seen for three years.
He dashed across the field and right in the front row of the throng were his parents.
He swept his mother into his arms, embraced his father and then dashed back to the Zeppelin.

From the Los Angeles Times, August 27, 1929, via researcher Kathy Franz:

High tribute to Dr. Hugo Eckener’s skill in piloting the Graf Zeppelin on its round-the-world trip and to his scientific knowledge were paid here yesterday by Commander Charles E. Rosendahl and Lieut. J. C. Richardson . . .
Lieut. Richardson is the son of Mr. and Mrs. H. R. Richardson, who make their home at the Southland Hotel here, and who warmly welcomed their boy at the Ambassador yesterday. Lieut. Richardson, when on duty, is the navigator of the Navy dirigible Los Angeles.
“The Graf handled excellently in all kinds of weather and to my mind demonstrated the practicability of such craft beyond argument,” the naval air lieutenant said yesterday. “Dr. Eckener displayed expert skill in navigation and he has a well-trained crew. Germany can well be proud of their exploit in piloting the Graf around the world.”

From the San Francisco Examiner, August 27, 1929, via researcher Kathy Franz:

Although J. C. Richardson is a hardened Zeppelin traveler, having spent more than 2,000 hours in the air on lighter-than-aircraft, he declared the ‘round-the-world flight thrilled him immeasurably.
“I thought my days for experiencing new thrills were over,” declared Lieut. Richardson, observer on the flight for the United States Navy. “To me the gondola of a dirigible was home. I got no more kick out of walking over the runways than I did on treading the deck of a ship. And then I had the good luck to get this flight. Each day was a revelation to me.
“Every moment was interesting and thrilling.”
[In a second article on the same page]:
By Lieut. Jack Richardson.
LOS ANGELES, MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, Aug. 26. – Von Schiller and I do a lot of kidding. Yesterday about nine thirty, when we passed the Japanese steamer Hakutatsuo Maru and so found by radio that our ship’s positions were within eight miles of each other, showing remarkable accuracy, I jokingly said to Schiller, “That certainly is poor navigation. The idea of being eight miles out after only two days from departure is ---” I got no further, as he did not understand my joking and thought I was seriously criticizing.
He began a long harangue in defense of having gone for over forty-eight hours without being able to obtain a fixed position, forty hours of which were through dense fog, storm and rain, and how rarely were astronomical positions possible.
I finally calmed him down, and after a few mutual pokes in the ribs, we were back on our old friendly footing.
Actually, I had wished to compliment him and his navigators, Wyows, Ludwig and Samt. In my opinion to go sachetting across the Pacific heading east, northeast and southeast, and back again, first through the tail end of a typhoon, where course had to be changed constantly to avoid the violence of the storm and heavy lightning, next through thirty hours of dense fog and some rain, and finally out in hours of overcast sky, and then to fetch up at a little spot on the chart for which we had been heading, is a little short of miraculous.
Wittemann, ship’s navigator, has been preparing for this flight for years. He has gotten around him assistance, instruments, and data which are the last words in aerial navigation.

From the San Bernardino County Sun, August 30, 1929, via researcher Kathy Franz:

Although while riding the tail of a typhoon as she approached Japan the Graf Zeppelin sometimes dropped 500 feet, the roughest going she encountered on her entire flight around the earth was over “our own Rocky mountains,” Lieut. Jack Richardson, American naval observer, said today.
Lieutenant Richardson explained that the Graf hit her rudder on the ground while taking off from Los Angeles. . . .
Lieutenant Richardson was enthusiastic in his praise of the performance of the Graf Zeppelin and her crew.
“She was marvelous on this trip – perfect. She went through almost every conceivable kind of weather and atmospheric conditions and her performance was wonderful. Not one bit of engine trouble on the entire trip. She’s a grand old ship.
“And the way they handled her was great. For instance, it took us something like 89 hours to cross the Pacific, didn’t it? Well, anyway, 60 of those hours we were flying through fog – fog so thick that we seldom saw sky or water. And we hit the old Farallon islands off the Golden Gate right on the nose. That’s navigation for you. They’re wonders, those Germans.
“I think this trip indicates,” he concluded, “that lighter-than-air ships will always be used in the future for long flights – especially over water. But we’ve got to perfect our weather information service before we can go ahead.”

Other

Jack's widow sponsored USS Everglades (AD 24) in 1945.

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.

January 1919

Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Trippe

January 1920

Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Alabama

January 1921

Lieutenant (j.g.), USS H-5

January 1922

Lieutenant (j.g.), USS R-15

May 1923

Lieutenant, USS R-15

July 1923

Lieutenant, USS R-15

Others at this command:

LTjg John Gillon '20

September 1923

Lieutenant, commanding officer, USS R-18

November 1923

Lieutenant, commanding officer, USS R-18

January 1924

Lieutenant, commanding officer, USS R-18

March 1924

Lieutenant, commanding officer, USS R-18

May 1924

Lieutenant, commanding officer, USS R-18

July 1924

Lieutenant, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Others at this command:

ENS Everett Abdill '24

September 1924

Lieutenant, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania