WARNER P. PORTZ, CDR, USN
Warner Portz '15
Lucky Bag
From the 1915 Lucky Bag:
Warner Philip Portz
Newcomerstown, Ohio
"Dutch" "Friction" "Sol" "Cotton-tail" "Mike"
THIS smiling sprig of sauerkraut has as many names as Methuselah had years, and his history would make Napoleon himself sit up and take notice.
His self-introduction to the first upperclassman he ever encountered as a Plebe is notable for its friendliness: "My name's Portz; what's yours?" The Navy has never had quite the same glamour and lure for Mike since that little overture. Youngster Year the ever-alert Teuton distinguished himself in seamanship. One day he was cruising placidly around the shores of Eastport in Catboat No. 13. After taking a few sextant angles and cross-bearings he decided that the boat had ceased to make way through the water. He also discovered that the centerboard had taken a very unseemly altitude. After due deliberation with his crew, composed of Friction and Cotton-tail, Captain Portz thrust an oar overboard and muttered the startled exclamation, "By the deep, one!"
Ah! but the height of his fame was not reached until Second Class year, when we learned through the columns of the "Newcomerstown Bugle" that "Lieutenant W. P. Portz, U. S. N., formerly of this city, is about to be ordered to command, and will soon leave for Mexico."
Friction is a man who knows when he is in the right and is not afraid to say so. He is conscientious in his work and well deserves the high class standing he has gained because he has rated every bit of it. He has not the advantage possessed by some like McCormick or Art Davis, that of looking about seven-tenths savvier than a 4.0, he can't throw a bluff at all, but he can come across with the dope on the subject.
Lacrosse Numerals.
Warner Philip Portz
Newcomerstown, Ohio
"Dutch" "Friction" "Sol" "Cotton-tail" "Mike"
THIS smiling sprig of sauerkraut has as many names as Methuselah had years, and his history would make Napoleon himself sit up and take notice.
His self-introduction to the first upperclassman he ever encountered as a Plebe is notable for its friendliness: "My name's Portz; what's yours?" The Navy has never had quite the same glamour and lure for Mike since that little overture. Youngster Year the ever-alert Teuton distinguished himself in seamanship. One day he was cruising placidly around the shores of Eastport in Catboat No. 13. After taking a few sextant angles and cross-bearings he decided that the boat had ceased to make way through the water. He also discovered that the centerboard had taken a very unseemly altitude. After due deliberation with his crew, composed of Friction and Cotton-tail, Captain Portz thrust an oar overboard and muttered the startled exclamation, "By the deep, one!"
Ah! but the height of his fame was not reached until Second Class year, when we learned through the columns of the "Newcomerstown Bugle" that "Lieutenant W. P. Portz, U. S. N., formerly of this city, is about to be ordered to command, and will soon leave for Mexico."
Friction is a man who knows when he is in the right and is not afraid to say so. He is conscientious in his work and well deserves the high class standing he has gained because he has rated every bit of it. He has not the advantage possessed by some like McCormick or Art Davis, that of looking about seven-tenths savvier than a 4.0, he can't throw a bluff at all, but he can come across with the dope on the subject.
Lacrosse Numerals.
Loss
Warner was lost on January 7, 1945, when he died of exhaustion and wounds received in the attack on the Japanese ship Oryoku Maru, which he was aboard as a prisoner of war.
He was previously aboard Enoura Maru before that ship was destroyed on January 9, 1945.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Warner graduated from Newcomerstown high school in 1909. He then went to the Ohio University before entering the Naval Academy.
In February 1920, Warner was listed on USS Woolsey in San Diego.
He married Cecelia L. White on February 1, 1922, in Washington, D. C. Cecelia joined her husband often. She sailed from Cristobal, Canal Zone in January 1924, to New York City, and again the same voyage in March 1930. In May 1929, she sailed with their son from Kobe, Japan, to Honolulu, and then in June, sailed to San Francisco. In September 1939, she sailed from Los Angeles to Honolulu. She returned to Los Angeles from Manila on December, 31, 1940.
In March 1942, word came from Cecilia that Warner was commander of the port of Manila until a few months earlier. He was not heard from after June 1942.
His father Philip was a farmer. In addition to the siblings listed on findagrave, Warner’s brother was Edward Gowin Portz, born in 1887. Edward attended the Ohio University in 1910 and was very active in organizations and athletics. He worked for the Oregon Shipbuilding Co. in Portland during WWI and later became an Army sergeant.
He was a Lieutenant Commander and the Engineer Officer aboard USS Memphis in the late 1920s; he was awarded a letter of commendation from the Secretary of the Navy for winning the Engineering Trophy of the Light Cruiser Class and the Greatest Improvement Prize. (Per the Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 138 (August 16, 1930)).
Warner was commanding officer of USS Leary (DD 158) from July 1932 to January 1935; he later commanded USS Moffett (DD 362) from May 1938 to June 1939. Some point after June 1939 he was commander of Destroyer Division 28 (per information previously at http://www.fleetorganization.com/1939battleforce.html).
At the outbreak of the war, he was the Port Director, Manila, Philippines.
Following his capture, he was the Senior Prisoner of the Davao prison camp until the camp was evacuated in late 1944. He was described as "sharp nosed, kindly."
From Last of the Oryoku Maru:
They stacked their dead at the entrance to the court. They moved the tall referee’s platform to the middle of the court, where it became a kind of lookout and command post. Commander Warner Portz was still nominally senior officer, but so exhausting had been the experience he underwent in the aft hold that both he and Commander Francis Bridget '21 were depleted as well as wounded. Leadership was passing into the hands of Beecher, whose forward hold had suffered greatly, but not so much.
"We saw that Bridget and Portz were fading," says one Army Lieutenant. "Their throats were almost gone from shouting orders; you could hardly hear them. Both had body wounds, and Portz was wounded in the head, too. I had never seen bravery and leadership in my life like that of Bridget when men began dying in the hold. As for Portz, I had come to think of him as I would my own father."
His wife, Cecilia, was listed as next of kin; he was also survived by a son.
Photographs
From the 1915 Lucky Bag
From Hall of Valor:
The President of the United States of America takes pride in presenting the Navy Cross (Posthumously) to Commander Warner Philip Portz (NSN: 0-9042), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism while a prisoner of war of the Japanese serving as Senior Officer of a group of over 1,600 prisoners confined in the holds of the Japanese vessel ORYOKU MARU, during the period 13 December 1944 to 15 December 1944. By registering vigorous and repeated protests in spite of beatings and threats of execution, Commander Portz persisted in his efforts to obtain water and ventilation for his suffering and dying comrades until shot in the head during the bombing and strafing of the vessel on 15 December 1944. His performance of duty as Senior Prisoner was in accordance with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Service: Navy
Division: Prisoner of War (POW Ship Oryoku Maru)
Prisoner of War Medal
From Hall of Valor:
Commander Warner Philip Portz (NSN: 0-9042), United States Navy, was captured by the Japanese after the fall of Corregidor, Philippine Islands, on 6 May 1942, and was held as a Prisoner of War until his death in captivity on 15 December 1944.
General Orders: NARA Database: Records of World War II Prisoners of War, created, 1942 - 1947
Service: Navy
Division: Prisoner of War (Philippine Islands)
Rank: Commander
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.
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