SARGENT FORCE, LTJG, USN

Sargent Force '10

Date of birth: March 15, 1889

Date of death: December 3, 1915

Age: 26

Lucky Bag

From the 1910 Lucky Bag:

Sargent Force

Rochester, New York

"Sunny Jim" "Sunny"

A first-classman called Sunny Jim
Braces all of his plebes with such vim
That, at Xmas parade
I'm greatly afraid
They all tried to use force on him.

PEOPLE often wonder who and where is the original "Sunny Jim." Step up, ladies and gentlemen, here we have him—the only one of his kind in captivity. Never did a nickname fit better than his. His smile, and he never wears anything else, will cure the worst case of blues. Always willing to give his last cigar to a friend. The terror of the Ninth Company plebes. Witness a certain Christmas issue of the '"Bulletin." Quite mild as a plebe, but changed considerably thereafter. Gets out of all the exams without boning. Always ready for a rough house, and the Twelfth Company early developed his abilities in this line. Fusses on occasions and always makes a hit. Went split at a hop, Second Class year, and has never recovered. A steady at the Crocker House on three cruises. Didn't go ashore during the latter part of First Class cruise. When he is feeling happy, will tell you marvelous tales of field and stream, of camps and canoes, and of hunting trips in Canadian woods.

"Jim! Jim! Sunny Jim!

Ten thousand girls are wise to him!"

Tennis Squad (4, 3, 2, 1). Buzzard (a). Two Stripes (b)

Sargent Force

Rochester, New York

"Sunny Jim" "Sunny"

A first-classman called Sunny Jim
Braces all of his plebes with such vim
That, at Xmas parade
I'm greatly afraid
They all tried to use force on him.

PEOPLE often wonder who and where is the original "Sunny Jim." Step up, ladies and gentlemen, here we have him—the only one of his kind in captivity. Never did a nickname fit better than his. His smile, and he never wears anything else, will cure the worst case of blues. Always willing to give his last cigar to a friend. The terror of the Ninth Company plebes. Witness a certain Christmas issue of the '"Bulletin." Quite mild as a plebe, but changed considerably thereafter. Gets out of all the exams without boning. Always ready for a rough house, and the Twelfth Company early developed his abilities in this line. Fusses on occasions and always makes a hit. Went split at a hop, Second Class year, and has never recovered. A steady at the Crocker House on three cruises. Didn't go ashore during the latter part of First Class cruise. When he is feeling happy, will tell you marvelous tales of field and stream, of camps and canoes, and of hunting trips in Canadian woods.

"Jim! Jim! Sunny Jim!

Ten thousand girls are wise to him!"

Tennis Squad (4, 3, 2, 1). Buzzard (a). Two Stripes (b)

Loss

Sargent was lost on December 3, 1915 when, during coaling operations aboard USS Georgia (Battleship No. 15), a boom gave way and struck him on the head.

Obituary

From NYSCU:

Service at Parents’ House
Time of Funeral of Young Lieutenant J. S. Force Fixed
The funeral of Lieutenant James Sargent Force, U. S. N., who was fatally injured last Friday at Norfolk, Virginia, will take place from the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John W. Force, in East avenue, Brighton, this afternoon at 2:30 o’clock. Rev. Arthur W. Grose, of the First Universalist Church, will conduct the services. Burial will be made in Mount Hope Cemetery and will be private.
It was the desire of some of the men of the Georgia to accompany the body of Lieutenant Force to Rochester, but on account of the warship having been ordered to sail yesterday to Charleston and the absence of several of her officers on leave, the plan was necessarily abandoned.
Lieutenant Force was directing the coaling of the Georgia when a boom gave way and he was struck on the head. He suffered a fracture of the skull and died in a few hours. Military services were held on Sunday afternoon at the Naval Hospital and an escort accompanied the body to the boat on the beginning of its journey to Rochester.
Lieutenant Force was the grandson of James Sargent, who was one of the founders of the Sargent & Greenleaf Company of this city. He was graduated from Annapolis in 1910. He succeeded last year in establishing a record score for twelve-inch turrets on the Georgia. He not only won a navy E and a first navy prize for the members of the turret’s crew but established a record equaled only once by any turret of its class. While he had not been in Rochester much of the time for the past few years, he had a wide acquaintance in the city, and it is said that his popularity among his associates in the navy was marked.
Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester NY, Tue. 7 Dec 1915

His men appear to have commissioned a gold medal in his memory.

Sargent is buried in New York.

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.