NORMAN W. WHITE, LCDR, USN
Norman White '39
Lucky Bag
From the 1939 Lucky Bag:
NORMAN WOODROW WHITE
Quincy, Massachusetts
Norm, Whitey
A sailor by heritage, Norm has been at home in the naval school for boys from the day he entered. Taking his academics as they came, he has had ample time for other fields of greater personal interest to himself. A gambler at heart, "Whitey" will take a chance on anything. Although always ready for a last game of "touch," one of cribbage would be still more to his liking. We quote as a further sailorlike characteristic a familiar exclamation of his: "Don't tear that shirt! It's good for a couple more launderings yet." Being of the tall-dark-and-han'some variety, he likes his women or leaves them, as the mood dictates. Four years of close and harmonious association with him have shown us that his future is secure.
Wrestling 4; Radio Club 1; Movie Gang; Log Staff; 1 Stripe.
NORMAN WOODROW WHITE
Quincy, Massachusetts
Norm, Whitey
A sailor by heritage, Norm has been at home in the naval school for boys from the day he entered. Taking his academics as they came, he has had ample time for other fields of greater personal interest to himself. A gambler at heart, "Whitey" will take a chance on anything. Although always ready for a last game of "touch," one of cribbage would be still more to his liking. We quote as a further sailorlike characteristic a familiar exclamation of his: "Don't tear that shirt! It's good for a couple more launderings yet." Being of the tall-dark-and-han'some variety, he likes his women or leaves them, as the mood dictates. Four years of close and harmonious association with him have shown us that his future is secure.
Wrestling 4; Radio Club 1; Movie Gang; Log Staff; 1 Stripe.
Loss
Norman was lost on May 4, 1945 when the PBY Catalina "flying boat" patrol bomber he was aboard -- or possibly piloting -- crashed into a fog-shrouded hillside near the Golden Gate Bridge. Eight others aboard were also killed.
The accident report is available here. Norman was executive officer of Patrol Bombing Squadron (VPB) 84.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
His crash was on the southern slope of Mt. Tamalpais, less than a mile from where 14 Army personnel died a year before.
Norman attended Wollaston school in Massachusetts. Wollaston is a neighborhood in Quincy.
After graduation, he was on the aircraft carrier Saratoga and on the mine sweeper Picard. He was commander of the destroyer Whipple which was sent from Singapore to a spot off the Malay Peninsula to seek survivors of the ill-fated British battle cruisers, the Prince of Wales and Repulse, soon after Pearl Harbor. In October, 1942, he was sent to New Orleans for aviation training. He was also stationed in Pensacola, Jacksonville, Providence and Panama.
He and Alice had a 14-month-old son, Richard. His father was Capt. Richard J. White of New York who served in the Coast Guard.
Because the loss was on an operational patrol, he is listed here under the WWII category.
Photographs
From the Lucky Bag
From The Boston Globe on December 16, 1941
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
LT Harrington Drake '31 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg John Spiers '32 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
LTjg John Ennis '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
ENS Raymond Vogel, Jr. '36 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
June 1940
LT William Sisko '31 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 3)
LT Harrington Drake '31 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LT John Spiers '32 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
LTjg John Ennis '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg Raymond Vogel, Jr. '36 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
ENS Edward O'Hare '37 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
November 1940
LTjg Jack Ferguson '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg Francis Maher, Jr. '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg John Ennis '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg Raymond Vogel, Jr. '36 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
LTjg Patrick Hart '37 (Torpedo Squadron (VT) 3)
LTjg Edward O'Hare '37 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
LTjg Macdonald Thompson '37 (Torpedo Squadron (VT) 3)
LTjg Howard Nester, Jr. '37 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
April 1941
LTjg Victor Gadrow '35 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
LTjg Francis Maher, Jr. '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg Harold Shrider '37 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 3)
LTjg Patrick Hart '37 (Torpedo Squadron (VT) 3)
LTjg Edward O'Hare '37 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
LTjg Macdonald Thompson '37 (Torpedo Squadron (VT) 3)
ENS Howard Clark '38 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
ENS Osborne Wiseman '38 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
ENS Curtis Howard '38 (Torpedo Squadron (VT) 3)
ENS Marion Dufilho '38 (Fighting Squadron (VF) 3)
ENS William Brady '38 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 3)
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
