LEMUEL D. COOKE, CDR, USN
Lemuel Cooke '39
Lucky Bag
From the 1939 Lucky Bag:
LEMUEL DOTY COOKE
Hernando, Mississippi
Lem, Dusty, Cookie
His transition from the red hills of Mississippi to the banks of the Severn was the realization of Dusty's dreams. At first he was slightly disappointed to know he had to study so hard and so often in order to be a Naval officer. However, these few academic worries did not prevent his participation in athletics. A fitting name given him by the sports writers, "Navy's backfield find," describes his rapid climb to fame in football, made during second class year. Baseball, next to dragging, is the sport he likes best, and his performances on the diamond are always admirable. His good disposition is evidenced by his many friends. Truly a Southern Gentleman, he is a man of whom the Navy can well be proud.
Football 4, 3, 2, 1, N; Baseball 4, 3, 2, 1, N*, Captain 1; 1 Stripe.
LEMUEL DOTY COOKE
Hernando, Mississippi
Lem, Dusty, Cookie
His transition from the red hills of Mississippi to the banks of the Severn was the realization of Dusty's dreams. At first he was slightly disappointed to know he had to study so hard and so often in order to be a Naval officer. However, these few academic worries did not prevent his participation in athletics. A fitting name given him by the sports writers, "Navy's backfield find," describes his rapid climb to fame in football, made during second class year. Baseball, next to dragging, is the sport he likes best, and his performances on the diamond are always admirable. His good disposition is evidenced by his many friends. Truly a Southern Gentleman, he is a man of whom the Navy can well be proud.
Football 4, 3, 2, 1, N; Baseball 4, 3, 2, 1, N*, Captain 1; 1 Stripe.
Loss
Lemuel was lost on May 17, 1950 when his "Banshee jet fighter plane plummeted into a marsh near Atlantic City." (Information from July 1950 issue of Shipmate.) He was the executive officer of Air Development Squadron (VX) 3.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
His father Robert Percy Cooke was president of a bank in Hernando. He died in 1934.
Per the Clarion-Ledger, November 17, 1938:
While at the Naval Academy in the fall of 1938, he was “the best football flipper in the world.” His yardage-gained-per-pass average of 14 yards is the highest in the country. His average of completion stands at .510, gained from finding his receiver and planting the ball in his arms 51 times in an even 100 attempts.
Per the Clarion-Ledger, May, 17, 1939:
Midshipman Lucien Cletus (Pete) Powell, of Forester, Ark., won the Naval Athletic Association trophy a sword, for excellent in athletics. His inseparable companion, on the field and off, Lemuel Doty Cooke of Hernando, Miss., was awarded the Thompson trophy as the midshipman who did the most this year to advance Navy athletics.
The deep South “Twins” have been teammates in baseball and football. Last fall their Cooke-to-Powell forward passing combination won national notice as Navy’s chief offensive weapon on the gridiron.
Cooke was a halfback and did almost all the Navy’s passing. Powell, an end, captained the football team. Cooke is captain of the baseball team. He is a third baseman while Powell cavorts in left field.
Cooke was rated with Sid Luckman and Davy O’Brien in passing efficiency. Powell won All-American consideration for his work on the other end of his pal’s heaves.
Cooke attended Hernando High School and Marion Institute, Marion, Ala. He was midshipman ensign in the regiment.
Powell and Cooke will be commissioned ensigns in the line on graduation next month and both hope to go into naval aviation.
Per The Greenwood Commonwealth, Mississippi, February 22, 1944:
Hernando Fighter Plasters Japs
Lemuel D. Cooke Among Fighters in Navy Who Went out of his Way to Get a Good Shot.
ADVANCED SOUTH PACIFIC AIR BASE (AP) -- “Quarterbacked” by Lemuel D. Cooke, Hernando, Miss., a backfield man for Navy elevens before the war, a Navy fighter squadron struck Japanese installations on New Ireland Feb. 17 in one of the best low-level attacks of the kind yet.
The fighters were unable to get over Rabaul because of weather and picked the New Ireland target because “we didn’t want to come home without socking a Jap somewhere” Cooke, whose wife lives in Dallas Church, Va., declared.
Lt. (j. g.) Alex Kostrzewsky, Millers Falls, Mass., said: “We dived from the mattress overcast at 2500 feet and sprayed the whole area from so low an altitude we had to pull up to avoid hitting the trees on our recovery.”
From the Clarion Ledger, February 23, 1944:
Lemuel was listed as member of the hellhound squadron who got a Jap. … The navy Corsair “Skull and Crossbones” squadron bagged 16 Japs during the [Rabaul] fight to take the lead as high squadron in the red hot Southwest Pacific race. The “Skull and Crossbones” squadron boosters its total Jap planes destroyed to 154 in 62 days of combat.
Led by Lieut. Commander Tom Blackburn, Chevy Chase, Md., the “Skull and Crossbones” squadron has bagged 106 of their total kill in 26 days. Thus far the squadron has not lost a plane, although they have battled as many as 75 Zeros at once.
Per Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Mississippi, May 24, 1950:
During World War II Cmdr. Cooke won the Distinguished Flying Cross, eight Air Medals, a letter of commendation and a Navy unit citation.
He served in the Skull and Crossbones Squadron on Bouganville and was senior aviator aboard the battleship South Dakota. He was standing beside Capt. Thomas Gatch, now a retired vice admiral, on the bridge of the South Dakota when the latter was struck in the neck by a slug and dangerously wounded. Cooke was slightly injured by the same slug.
He was predeceased by his wife, Barbara; appears they had a son, Lemuel, Jr. (6), together. His next of kin was identified in the Class of '39 Fifteen Year Anniversary book as his wife Joan, and children Carole and Christopher; his mother, Ethel; and two brothers, Robert and Eb.
Lemuel is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Unable to find citation for his Distinguished Flying Crosses (listed on gravestone).
Photographs
From the Lucky Bag
Wartime Service
Lem was senior aviator aboard USS South Dakota (BB 57) during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands in October 1942, and slightly wounded when a dive bomber scored a hit against that ship.
Later, he was a member of Fighting Squadron (VF) 17 for at least some portion of the period from October 1943 until he departed in December 1943.
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.
October 1939
LTjg David Taylor, Jr. '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 4)
LTjg Richard Bull, Jr. '36 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 41)
June 1940
LTjg Wendell Froling '34 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 4)
LTjg Richard Bull, Jr. '36 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 41)
November 1940
LTjg Ralph Embree '36 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 4)
April 1941
LTjg Richard Bull, Jr. '36 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 41)
LTjg Ralph Embree '36 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 41)
ENS Richard Crommelin '38 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 41)
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
