JULIAN B. JORDAN, LT, USN
Julian Jordan '25
Lucky Bag
From the 1925 Lucky Bag:
Julian Bethune Jordan
Dawson, Georgia
"Brown" "Jurgen"
ONE bright day in July, 1921, this modest, unassuming lad entered our midst. Thereafter, he proceeded to calm us down. He remained little known to most of us except occupants of certain famous rooms during our Plebe year.
Youngster year, they put Brown in the same room with two vicious young gamblers and as one of the members of that now-famous den of Iniquity, otherwise Ten Downing Street, he first gathered fame. He almost gathered fame throughout the regiment when "eleven out of thirteen vanished" and he was one of the two who remained; but he proved that, even though there was a crap game going on, he wasn't in it—he was reading the paper, and anyway, he was broke.
'Twas during Second Class cruise that he first gathered his newest nickname, Jurgen. His fighting phrase, "What have you got down there?" bids fair to become one of the famous slogans of the Navy. The name was the product of that episode.
"Aw, knock it off, Ryan!"
"What have you got down there?"
Class Baseball (3, 2).
Julian Bethune Jordan
Dawson, Georgia
"Brown" "Jurgen"
ONE bright day in July, 1921, this modest, unassuming lad entered our midst. Thereafter, he proceeded to calm us down. He remained little known to most of us except occupants of certain famous rooms during our Plebe year.
Youngster year, they put Brown in the same room with two vicious young gamblers and as one of the members of that now-famous den of Iniquity, otherwise Ten Downing Street, he first gathered fame. He almost gathered fame throughout the regiment when "eleven out of thirteen vanished" and he was one of the two who remained; but he proved that, even though there was a crap game going on, he wasn't in it—he was reading the paper, and anyway, he was broke.
'Twas during Second Class cruise that he first gathered his newest nickname, Jurgen. His fighting phrase, "What have you got down there?" bids fair to become one of the famous slogans of the Navy. The name was the product of that episode.
"Aw, knock it off, Ryan!"
"What have you got down there?"
Class Baseball (3, 2).
Loss
Julian was lost on December 7, 1941 when USS Oklahoma (BB 37) was sunk in Pearl Harbor. He was the ship's assistant engineering officer.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Julian graduated from Dawson High School in 1921. He was editor of the yearbook and played on the baseball team. At the junior-senior banquet, Julian gave a speech entitled “After School, What?”
He held the Yangtze Service Medal for the U. S. S. Pittsburgh, 1927-1930.
Julian married Lucy H. Hamilton on September 12, 1931, in Norfolk.
His father was Edmund, a farmer, mother Minnie, and brother Willie who became a doctor. His mother was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
From Navsource:
Julian Bethune Jordan was born 11 April 1904, and graduated from the Naval Academy in 1925. He served in USS Chester (CA 27), in USS Dobbin (AD 3), and at various shore stations before reporting to USS Oklahoma (BB 37) on 4 August 1938. While serving as assistant engineering officer on board that battleship, he was one of the valiant men who were lost in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 7 December 1941.
His wife was listed as next of kin.
Namesake
USS Jordan (DE 204) was named for Julian; the ship was sponsored by his widow, Lucy.
From The Greenville News on August 29, 1943
Recovery
From Find A Grave:
By Ed Friedrich
The KitsapSun (Tribune News Service)
Published: August 22, 2016BREMERTON, Wash. (Tribune News Service) — After 75 years, the remains of a Navy lieutenant who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor have been identified and will be buried with full military honors at a Bremerton, Wash. cemetery.
Lt. Julian Jordan, a 1925 Naval Academy graduate, served as assistant engineering officer aboard the USS Oklahoma. The 37-year-old Georgian was likely below deck in the engine room on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, said Julian "Jay" Remers, who was named after the grandfather he never knew.
Japanese planes delivered several torpedo hits that caused the ship to quickly capsize. Jordan and 428 shipmates died.
While salvaging the Oklahoma, the Navy recovered the remains of "unknown" sailors and Marines and buried them in two cemeteries. They were disinterred in 1947 and 35 were identified. The other 388 were placed in 61 caskets in 46 plots at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu.
In 2015, after great improvements in technology, the remains were ordered to be disinterred again for analysis. In nine months, more than 30 men have been identified. Scientists from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency and the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory identified Jordan by matching DNA to three cousins and through circumstantial evidence and laboratory analysis, including dental records.
Jordan's family was notified April 27, Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency spokeswoman Staff Sgt. Kristen Duus said.
"I am very happy that we finally have identification and can properly bury him as a family," said Remers, a Cheyenne, Wyoming, police officer.
Though Jordan's family hailed from Georgia and his widow, Lucy, and a daughter, Nancy, are buried in Florida, and another daughter, Ann Jordan Remers, lives in Tucson, he'll be laid to rest at Bremerton's Forest Lawn Cemetery.
Why?
"Because we don't go there anymore," Remers said of the Southeast.
He and others do visit sister Laurel Remers Pardee's home in Poulsbo. Jordan also was stationed in Bremerton during the 1930s.
"We have proximity to family and a little bit of personal connection between him and Bremerton," Remers, 53, said. "If we travel, we go to see my sister in Poulsbo, so we have the opportunity to visit the grave on a regular basis."
Jordan's daughter Ann Jordan Remers says it's hard to remember what happened 75 years ago, when she was 8 years old. She can picture a little Bremerton bungalow the family rented one summer on a hill that sloped down to the bay. She also recalls her father going to sea and the family moving a lot.
Pearl Harbor was hard on them.
"It was this long period of waiting to see what had happened and see who survived and who didn't," the 83-year-old said. "I don't think we got the actual notice for 10 days."
She's glad the Oklahoma victims are being identified.
"I'm very pleased that these personnel have been recognized and are being given memorial services all over the country in various little towns and cities," she said. "It seems like a form of justice that they aren't just cast aside and commingled with other remains."
Though he never met his grandfather, Julian Remers admires him.
"He loved his country, he loved the Navy. I'm sure he was proud of his ship, and he died with his crew," he said. "I consider him to be a hero and a patriot and part of the family's legacy of service."
The service will be Sunday at the Kitsap Way funeral home.
No new information is available about two West Sound residents, Petty Officer 3rd Class Bruce Ellsion, of Poulsbo, and Seaman Ralph Keil, of Port Gamble, who were aboard the Oklahoma, Duus said.
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 1926
October 1926
January 1927
April 1927
January 1928
April 1928
July 1928
October 1928
January 1929
April 1929
April 1930
October 1930
January 1931
LTjg Oscar Pate, Jr. '27 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
April 1931
July 1931
October 1931
January 1932
April 1932
October 1932
January 1933
April 1933
July 1933
October 1933
April 1934
July 1934
October 1934
January 1935
April 1935
October 1935
January 1936
April 1936
July 1936
LCDR Elmer Kiehl '20 (Naval Gun Factory)
LT John Hollowell, Jr. '22 (Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.)
LT William France '24 (Naval Gun Factory)
LTjg Warren Graf '27 (Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.)
January 1937
LT John Hollowell, Jr. '22 (Experimental Diving Unit)
LT Henry Batterton '23 (Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.)
April 1937
LT John Hollowell, Jr. '22 (Experimental Diving Unit)
LT Henry Batterton '23 (Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.)
September 1937
LT William France '24 (Navy Yard, Washington, D.C.)
January 1938
July 1938
January 1939
October 1939
June 1940
November 1940
April 1941
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