JOHN J. MCCORMACK, JR., LCDR, USN

John McCormack, Jr. '33

Date of birth: May 23, 1912

Date of death: December 13, 1943

Age: 31

Lucky Bag

From the 1933 Lucky Bag:

JOHN JOSEPH McCORMACK, JR.

New York City, New York

"Mac" "Jig Jig"

Sometime in the past, one of Mac's ancestors kissed the Blarney Stone. Since then, the gift seems to have been handed down as a family heirloom, for we always find Mac ready for a "bull session." Almost any subject will do, but he is interested mainly in aviation, automobiles, sailing, classical music, philosophy, the Mills Brothers, the clarinet, and the latest from Arthur Murray's salon.

Return from leave usually found Mac in love again, but with the beginning of "ac" year, he put all this behind, and became a "red mike." Except for some unfortunate experiences with the Math Department he has never been troubled by "trees." However, he does not believe in unalleviated "boning." When it's a choice between an exam next week, and an afternoon on the Severn, Mac usually takes the river.

In sport, Mac concentrated on one each season. In the fall, he could be found on the class football team, while in the spring, he was usually busy on the track. From Christmas until the Ides of March, Mac became a permanent fixture at the pool's edge. This came under the head of managing water polo.

Mac has been an ideal roommate, always ready with a dissertation on the mysteries of navigation or the confidential secrets of a "what's it," valve. Last but not least, Mac always had his own shirts and socks.

Class Football 3; Assistant Manager Water Polo 4, 3, 2; Class Track 2, 1; Reef Points 2; Masqueraders 2, 1; Musical Clubs 1; N Club; Christmas Card Committee 1; Reception Committee 3, 2, 1; 2 P. O.

JOHN JOSEPH McCORMACK, JR.

New York City, New York

"Mac" "Jig Jig"

Sometime in the past, one of Mac's ancestors kissed the Blarney Stone. Since then, the gift seems to have been handed down as a family heirloom, for we always find Mac ready for a "bull session." Almost any subject will do, but he is interested mainly in aviation, automobiles, sailing, classical music, philosophy, the Mills Brothers, the clarinet, and the latest from Arthur Murray's salon.

Return from leave usually found Mac in love again, but with the beginning of "ac" year, he put all this behind, and became a "red mike." Except for some unfortunate experiences with the Math Department he has never been troubled by "trees." However, he does not believe in unalleviated "boning." When it's a choice between an exam next week, and an afternoon on the Severn, Mac usually takes the river.

In sport, Mac concentrated on one each season. In the fall, he could be found on the class football team, while in the spring, he was usually busy on the track. From Christmas until the Ides of March, Mac became a permanent fixture at the pool's edge. This came under the head of managing water polo.

Mac has been an ideal roommate, always ready with a dissertation on the mysteries of navigation or the confidential secrets of a "what's it," valve. Last but not least, Mac always had his own shirts and socks.

Class Football 3; Assistant Manager Water Polo 4, 3, 2; Class Track 2, 1; Reef Points 2; Masqueraders 2, 1; Musical Clubs 1; N Club; Christmas Card Committee 1; Reception Committee 3, 2, 1; 2 P. O.

Loss

From VP Navy:

On 13 December 1943, Lieutenant Commander John J. McCormack took off from Nuku Fetau, Ellice Islands in PB4Y-1 32099 for a routine patrol. They were never heard from again. However, Harlan Scott in his, United States Navy Bombing Squadron One Hundred Eight (Tokyo Rose's Four Engine Fighters, writes "Two months later, intelligence officers at the newly captured Japanese base at Kwajalein, found prisoner of war interrogations among "Jap" secret documents. They revealed the questioning of three men captured after a lone Liberator had been shot down in a low-level attack on strongly defended Jaluit. These men, it is believed from the personal data given, were Ensign Darrel D. Whitmore, of Ulathe, Kansas; Lonnie Powell, ACRM, of Opa Locka, Florida; and John A. Zillis, AMM1c, of Baltimore, Maryland." Documents from American Graves Registration Service (Pacific Zone) and Department of the Army Memorial Division Repatriation Branch, during the late 1940s and early 1950s, conducted a series of inquires and declared the entire crew dead as of 12 January 1946. An interesting notation in the report seems to support Mr. Scott's assertion that some members of the crew had been taken prisoner. The three men identified by Scott matches those listed by the American Graves Registration Service. What happened to them remains a mystery as they did not survive the invasion of the Marshall Islands nor were they listed with repatriated POWs at the conclusion of the war. The crew consisted of: John Joseph McCormack, Lieutenant Commander, Richard Ellis McClung, Ensign, Darrell Devere Whitmore, Ensign, John Francis Ilkovich, AOM2c, Santiago Arredondo Lopez, ARM2c, James Eley Morgan, AMM3c, Robert William Nelson, ACOM, Lonnie Powell, ACRM, Lonnie Herman Ziesemer, AOM3c, and John Anthony Zillis, AMM1c.

Other Information

From the 1953 edition of the book "Double Three Roundup," published by the class of 1933:

Following graduation Mac served in battleships for a couple of years, and was then ordered to a "four-piper" in the Asiatic Fleet. While on Asiatic duty he met and married Helen Meneratti, a Navy junior; the wedding took place in the Philippines in 1937. They returned to the States in the Fall of 1937 when Mac reported to the RICHMOND. In 1939 he went to Pensacola for flight training, but couldn't get beyond Squadron Three. However, after a year on the staff of Commander Aircraft Scouting Force he wangled another shot at Pensacola; and this time he received his wings — barely four months after he started flying.
He was on duty with a PBY squadron at Kaneohe on December 7th, 1941. In the ensuing scramble to arm the planes and to save those that were burning, he received shrapnel wounds in both legs and additionally three machine gun slugs in his right leg. There followed more than a year of hospitalization and operations to piece together tendons in his leg. He received the Purple Heart, and a commendation from Admiral Nimitz for his actions on December 7th.
Between operations at the Naval Hospital, Corona, California, Mac had the pleasant opportunity of acting as Navy Technical Advisor to RKO Pictures during the filming of "Flight for Freedom," which starred Rosalind Russel, Fred MacMurray, and Herbert Marshall.
In 1943 Mac was returned to duty and ordered to a PB4Y squadron as Executive Officer. While in charge of a separate detachment of the squadron operating out of the Ellice Islands, his plane failed to return from a search on December 13, 1943. His death was officially announced in January 1946. The squadron, VB-108, was awarded the Navy Unit Commendation, and Mac was awarded the appropriate ribbon posthumously.
When his death was officially announced, family friends presented in his memory a sum of money and a suitably inscribed gold chalice to the Capuchin Franciscan Fathers for their Pacific area missions. The chalice is now in use in the Franciscan Missions in Guam.
Mac did not happen to be wearing his class ring on his last flight, and this ring was presented by his parents to the Naval Academy Museum, where it now represents the Class of 1933 in the museum's class ring collection.
Helen has since remarried and is now the wife of Colonel William K. Bonneaux, USAF. Mac's brother, Vincent is a Commander, USN, and his father, Mr. John J. McCormack, is Supervisor of Recreation in the Borough of Bronx, New York City.

The loss of the aircraft is also noted here.

His wife was listed as next of kin.

John is listed on the killed in action panel at the front of Memorial Hall and is remembered at the Courts of the Missing in Hawaii.

Photographs

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.