WILFRED BUSHNELL, LT, USN
Wilfred Bushnell '26
Lucky Bag
From the 1926 Lucky Bag:
Wilfred Bushnell
Watertown, New York
"Bessle" "Sunshine" "Turtle"
BUSH, having joined the Navy to drown the pangs of a broken heart, (he said), soon found himself paddling and spluttering in the swimming pool trying to keep his head above the line of least resistance. It is said that a Frenchman never did like water as a drink, and although Bush could never be accused of being a Frenchman he certainly can do that "etter" (etre) better than he can the breast stroke—even though he is from Watertown. Although he was never seen crawling to formations, Bush always managed to creep to the head of the line which awaited the Brooklyn train. Dragging, however, was not the only branch of athletics that he engaged in. He did his bit in Company bowling and is one of the boldest bowlers that ever chaffeured a ball down the alley.
Bush awaited with the keenest interest the First Class English course. Having been a member of Burkam's troupe Plebe year, and having made a classic out of Rangy Lil, he was ready to take the After Dinner Speeches for better or for worse, but in all opinion he found them a lot worse than he expected.
Go to it Bush ole boy! Drive your golden spikes in hard; and when your road is completed your friends won't ever forget you.
Wilfred Bushnell
Watertown, New York
"Bessle" "Sunshine" "Turtle"
BUSH, having joined the Navy to drown the pangs of a broken heart, (he said), soon found himself paddling and spluttering in the swimming pool trying to keep his head above the line of least resistance. It is said that a Frenchman never did like water as a drink, and although Bush could never be accused of being a Frenchman he certainly can do that "etter" (etre) better than he can the breast stroke—even though he is from Watertown. Although he was never seen crawling to formations, Bush always managed to creep to the head of the line which awaited the Brooklyn train. Dragging, however, was not the only branch of athletics that he engaged in. He did his bit in Company bowling and is one of the boldest bowlers that ever chaffeured a ball down the alley.
Bush awaited with the keenest interest the First Class English course. Having been a member of Burkam's troupe Plebe year, and having made a classic out of Rangy Lil, he was ready to take the After Dinner Speeches for better or for worse, but in all opinion he found them a lot worse than he expected.
Go to it Bush ole boy! Drive your golden spikes in hard; and when your road is completed your friends won't ever forget you.
Loss
Wilfred was lost when the airship USS Akron (ZRS 4) crashed off the coast of New Jersey on April 4, 1933.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Wilfred was an aide to Lieutenant T. G. W. Settle aboard the balloon which won the last international balloon races and the James Gordon Bennett Cup over Switzerland in 1932. In October 1932, he made a trip from Germany to Brazil on the Graf Zeppelin as a guest of Dr. Eckener.
Wilfred's father was John, a machinist in Watertown, New York. His mother Bertha had died in 1916.
In the Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 187 (21 January 1933) Wilfred was commended by the Secretary of the Navy for being a winning member of the US Navy Balloon Team, which won the Gordon Bennett Balloon Race in Basle, Switzerland. "The Department takes pleasure in commending you upon the initiative, interest, and skill displayed by you in the performance of this duty.......which contributed materially to the signal success achieved by the U.S. Navy Balloon entry."
He has a memory marker in New Jersey.
Photographs
From the Daily News on April 5, 1933
Video
Akron's executive officer, LCDR Herbert V. Wiley '15, one of only three survivors, was filmed shortly after the crash:
Related Articles
William Moffett '90, Fred Berry '08, Henry Cecil '10, Frank McCord '11, Harold Maclellan '18, Joseph Severyns '20, George Calnan '20, Richard Cross, Jr. '21, Herbert Wescoat '23, Robert Sayre '24, Charles Callaway '24, Hammond Dugan '24, Charles Miller '25, Charles Redfield '26, and Cyrus Clendening '27 were also lost aboard Akron.
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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