JAMES S. TYLER, LTJG, USN

James Tyler '34

Date of birth: August 7, 1912

Date of death: December 15, 1940

Age: 28

Lucky Bag

From the 1934 Lucky Bag:

JAMES STANLEY NUTT

Brookline, Massachusetts

"Stan" "Nert" "J. Stanley"

STAN is not a middlewesterner's idea of a typical Bostonian. Occasionally impetuous, but consistently more than a shade lazy he has not, and probably will not set the world on fire. But in later years when men of '34 talk of the damned good men of their class Stan's name will have a place in their conversations.

Stan's education started at Mr. River's Open Air School for Boys where he caught the esquimo habit and he is still unable to sleep unless a gale is blowing through the room. Coming to "Bobby's" to coach for the entrance exams Stan met Johnny Sapp and started the everlasting argument as to which has the choicer surname. Here at the Academy Stan has achieved phenominal success—by Youngster Year his locker door was covered with pictures, some rating as high as 2.8. Second Class Year on the Ring Dance Committee he showed his classmates that he could snip crepe paper and lug a sword belt with the best of them. By First Class Year the Executive Department recognized his leadership and consequently made him right guide of the first platoon of the first company in the first battalion.

Stan is especially gifted along literary lines. He stars every month in bull and putting this ability to good use he has edited the best news section the Log has seen in many years.

For the whole four year grind he has been a most satisfactory roommate.

Log Staff 4, 3, 2, Board 1. Trident Staff 3, 2. Lucky Bag Staff. Class Football 2, 1. Class Lacrosse 4. Ring Dance Committee. Class Supper Committee. 1 P.O.

James changed his name sometime in 1935 or 1936; see below.

JAMES STANLEY NUTT

Brookline, Massachusetts

"Stan" "Nert" "J. Stanley"

STAN is not a middlewesterner's idea of a typical Bostonian. Occasionally impetuous, but consistently more than a shade lazy he has not, and probably will not set the world on fire. But in later years when men of '34 talk of the damned good men of their class Stan's name will have a place in their conversations.

Stan's education started at Mr. River's Open Air School for Boys where he caught the esquimo habit and he is still unable to sleep unless a gale is blowing through the room. Coming to "Bobby's" to coach for the entrance exams Stan met Johnny Sapp and started the everlasting argument as to which has the choicer surname. Here at the Academy Stan has achieved phenominal success—by Youngster Year his locker door was covered with pictures, some rating as high as 2.8. Second Class Year on the Ring Dance Committee he showed his classmates that he could snip crepe paper and lug a sword belt with the best of them. By First Class Year the Executive Department recognized his leadership and consequently made him right guide of the first platoon of the first company in the first battalion.

Stan is especially gifted along literary lines. He stars every month in bull and putting this ability to good use he has edited the best news section the Log has seen in many years.

For the whole four year grind he has been a most satisfactory roommate.

Log Staff 4, 3, 2, Board 1. Trident Staff 3, 2. Lucky Bag Staff. Class Football 2, 1. Class Lacrosse 4. Ring Dance Committee. Class Supper Committee. 1 P.O.

James changed his name sometime in 1935 or 1936; see below.

Loss

James was lost on December 15, 1940 when the plane he was piloting crashed into Long Island Sound, New York.

From Gen Disasters at the now-broken link http://www.gendisasters.com/new-york/22830/new-rochelle-ny-navy-pilot-crashes-sound-dec-1940:

Navy Officer Killed in Plane Crash in Sound As Wife Looks On; Machinist Believed Dead
NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y., Dec. 15 — While flying over Long Island Sound this afternoon, in view of the wife and father-in-law of the pilot, a Navy training plane crashed into the water, killing Lieutenant James Stanley Tyler and probably a passenger, Pasquale Siclari, a naval machinist, of 5703 Avenue M, Brooklyn.
The body of Lieutenant Tyler, who was 28 years old, was recovered immediately, but it was believed that the machinist's body was pinned in the wreckage at the bottom of the Sound. A tug from the Navy Yard at Brooklyn was on its way here tonight to raise the plane and search for Siclari's body. At first it was thought that Lieutenant Tyler was alone in the machine, but officials at Floyd Bennett Field said Siclari was with him when the plane took off from there. Lieutenant Tyler, who was stationed at Floyd Bennett Field, was the husband of Mrs. Harriett Frances Davis Tyler, daughter of Supreme Court Justice Lee Parsons Davis, with whom the couple made their home.
The Navy biplane fell into the water at about 4 o'clock after going into a spin from an altitude of 150 feet, according to Patrolman Thomas Fieldhouse and Fireman William Sullivan, who were cruising in a New Rochelle police boat and were 1,000 feet away from the spot where the plane fell. They said the motor stalled.
Fieldhouse and Sullivan said the machine had been stunting and they had watched it for several minutes before it made a sudden downward swoop and then went into the spin. The police boat retrieved Lieutenant Tyler's body within three minutes after the ship disappeared. His unpacked parachute was floating on the surface and the body was not far below it. Except for a few pieces of canvas and wood, no part of the plane remained afloat. Fieldhouse and Sullivan placed a buoy to mark the place.
The plane fell a quarter of a mile off Premium Point and a half a mile from the Davis home at 114 Sutton Manor. Mrs. Tyler and Justice Davis saw the plane falling but did not see it crash into the water because their vision of the water was hidden.
Dec. 16, 1940 edition of "The New York Times"

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

James’ parents Henry W. and Alice (Torrance) married on February 21, 1900 in Pittsburgh. They later were divorced. His mother worked in furniture and lingerie sales while her sons were growing up in Brookline, Massachusetts. His brother Harry was born 9/19/1907 in Boston. Survivors were his wife, 4-month-old daughter Thayla Lee, mother, brother Harry, and sister Natalie, Mrs. Windsor Gale (born 1902 in Connecticut.)
Two hundred mourners, including Navy and civilian officials, and a guard of honor were at his funeral. Enlisted men from Floyd Bennett Field carried the casket, which bore the cap and sword of the dead lieutenant and a draped American flag. Burial was in Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla, New York.

He is buried in New York.

Photographs

From the Star Gazette on December 18, 1940

Career & Name Change

In the July 1935 Navy Directory he is listed as an Ensign aboard USS Arizona (BB 39) with the surname "Nutt"; in the July 1936 Navy Directory his name has changed to Tyler. In the July 1937 Navy Directory he is listed as a LTJG at NAS Pensacola, Florida, under instruction. In July 1938 Navy Directory he is a LTJG in Scouting Squadron (VS) 6; in the October 1939 Navy Directory he is a LTJG in VCS squadron aboard USS Brooklyn (CL 40), probably Cruiser Scouting Squadron (VCS) 8. (Per Richard Leonard, naval aviation historian.) In the July 1940 Navy Directory he is listed as a LTJG at NRAB New York.

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.