JOHN S. MACLAUGHLIN, JR., LTCOL, USMC
John MacLaughlin, Jr. '38
Lucky Bag
From the 1938 Lucky Bag:
JOHN SIRIUS MACLAUGHLIN, JR.
Collingswood, New Jersey
Mac, Glook
"Well, I guess I'll sleep for a while." Now you know Mac who believes thoroughly in this ancient and ever popular pastime. However, don't think him lazy, for when there is work to do, he does it. Always you find him with something to keep him occupied; in the fall it's soccer, and in the spring, lacrosse. Sometimes he is engaged in model ship building, and always he is busy fixing the radio. Radio is his hobby, one at which he has great skill. He is a "ham" of high caliber and gave up his station only when he entered the Naval Academy. His ambition is to set up his own station out in China. His varied activities and amiable disposition are combined into a swell fellow for a roommate.
Lacrosse 4, 3, 2, 1; Basketball 4, 3; Soccer 4, 3, 2, 1, aNf; Radio Club 4, 3, 2, 1; M.P.O.
JOHN SIRIUS MACLAUGHLIN, JR.
Collingswood, New Jersey
Mac, Glook
"Well, I guess I'll sleep for a while." Now you know Mac who believes thoroughly in this ancient and ever popular pastime. However, don't think him lazy, for when there is work to do, he does it. Always you find him with something to keep him occupied; in the fall it's soccer, and in the spring, lacrosse. Sometimes he is engaged in model ship building, and always he is busy fixing the radio. Radio is his hobby, one at which he has great skill. He is a "ham" of high caliber and gave up his station only when he entered the Naval Academy. His ambition is to set up his own station out in China. His varied activities and amiable disposition are combined into a swell fellow for a roommate.
Lacrosse 4, 3, 2, 1; Basketball 4, 3; Soccer 4, 3, 2, 1, aNf; Radio Club 4, 3, 2, 1; M.P.O.
Loss
John was lost when his aircraft crashed during a storm on January 25, 1944. From Wikipedia:
On January 25, 1944, 23 of the squadron's 24 aircraft left Tarawa Atoll headed for Funafiti, a flight of 469 miles. A failure of their Commanding General (BGen Lewie G. Merritt) to authorize an escort plane and an outdated weather forecast led them to fly directly into a major storm. Additionally, General Merritt's staff failed to inform Funafiti and the intermediate Nanumea Atoll that a group of friendly aircraft were on their way-thus the incoming planes had no radio signals to guide them on their way. 10 of the aircraft were lost at various times during the flight and the remaining 13 were forced to crash land in the ocean. The survivors spent 3 days at sea in life rafts before being spotted by a Navy PBY Catalina from Navy Patrol Squadron 59. After taking on the survivors, the patrol boat was too heavy to take off and had to radio for help. Later that evening they were met by the destroyer USS Hobby (DD-610) who ushered the men to safety. In all the squadron lost 22 aircraft and had 6 pilots killed. The 2012 documentary film "The Flintlock Disaster" recounts the events and losses during that flight.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
John graduated from Collingswood High School in 1933. He then attended the Alabama Polytechnic Institute of Auburn studying electrical engineering and the Naval Academy Preparatory School. He entered the Naval Academy by competitive examination for appointment from the Naval Reserves.
His wife was the former Naomi Oppenheimer; their son was John, III, nine months old.
In April 1944, John’s sister Lorna Ann MacLaughlin, 20, S 2/c, was at the naval training school, Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville. Another sister Edith served 15 months in the nursing corps, U. S. Naval Reserve.
In 1930, his father, John S., Sr. of Collingswood, was an accountant. His mother was Lillian, and his brother was Larry.
His wife was listed as next of kin.
Photographs
From his high school yearbook
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.
July 1938
LT John Welch '23 (Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
LTjg Edward Allen '31 (Naval Aircraft Factory)
January 1939
LT John Welch '23 (Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
LT Dudley Morton '30 (Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
ENS Louis Gulliver, Jr. '36 (Naval Finance and Supply School)
October 1939
LT Donald Lovelace '28 (Naval Aircraft Factory)
LTjg Edward Allen '31 (Naval Aircraft Factory)
ENS Lewis Davis '37 (Naval Finance & Supply School)
2LT Ralph Mann, Jr. '39 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)
2LT William Pace '39 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)
2LT Willard Holdredge '39 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)
2LT Carter Simpson '39 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)
2LT John Fantone '39 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)
2LT Hugh Tistadt, Jr. '39 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)
2LT William Harris '39 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)
2LT Alfred Gordon '39 (Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks)
June 1940
LT Finley Hall '29
LT Lance Massey '30
LT Charles Ostrom '30
LTjg George Bellinger '32
LTjg Martin Koivisto '32
LTjg Daniel Gothie '32
1LT Floyd Parks '34
LTjg Charles Ware '34
LTjg Jack Ferguson '35
LTjg Joel Davis, Jr. '35
LTjg Francis Maher, Jr. '35
LTjg John Powers '35
LTjg Robert Strickler '32 (Training Squadron (VN) 5D8)
LT William Townsend '32 (Training Squadron (VN) 5D8)
LTjg Dewitt Shumway '32 (Training Squadron (VN) 1D8)
LTjg William Widhelm '32 (Training Squadron (VN) 5D8)
November 1940
CDR William Sample '19
LT William Pennewill '29
LT Finley Hall '29
LT John Yoho '29
LT Lance Massey '30
LT George Bellinger '32
LT Martin Koivisto '32
LT John Spiers '32
LT Daniel Gothie '32
LT Dewitt Shumway '32
LT Albert Major, Jr. '32
LTjg John Phillips, Jr. '33
ENS Frank Peterson '33
LTjg Charles Brewer '34
LTjg Walker Ethridge '34
CAPT Floyd Parks '34
LTjg Charles Ware '34
LTjg Frank Whitaker '34
LTjg Philip Torrey, Jr. '34
LTjg George Nicol '34
LTjg Victor Gadrow '35
LTjg Richard Stephenson '35
LTjg Allan Edmands '35
LTjg Roy Krogh '36
LTjg Porter Maxwell '36
LTjg Richard Hughes '37
LTjg Frank Henderson, Jr. '37
LTjg John Thomas '37
LTjg John Boal '37
ENS Harry Howell '38
ENS Eric Allen, Jr. '38
ENS James Ginn '38
ENS Oswald Zink '38
ENS Frank Case, Jr. '38
ENS Howard Fischer '38
ENS Edmundo Gandia '38
ENS Charles Reimann '38
ENS Howard Clark '38
ENS Roy Hale, Jr. '38
ENS Leonard Thornhill '38
ENS Osborne Wiseman '38
ENS Curtis Howard '38
ENS Jep Jonson '38
ENS Roy Green, Jr. '38
ENS Marion Dufilho '38
2LT James Owens '38
ENS William Brady '38
ENS Charles Anderson '38
ENS Carl Holmstrom '38
ENS Charles King '38
ENS William Tate, Jr. '38
2LT Douglas Keeler '38
ENS Harry Bass '38
ENS John Kelley '38
ENS John Erickson '38
ENS William Lamberson '38
ENS Donald Smith '38
ENS Frank Quady '38
ENS Richard Crommelin '38
ENS Robert Seibels, Jr. '38
ENS Alphonse Minvielle '38
April 1941
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