View source for FRANK A. TROTTER, LT, USNR

{{KeyDates|DoB=February 26, 1901|DoD=June 8, 1942|Age=41|name_class=Frank Trotter '23}}

{{LuckyBag|LBLink=https://archive.org/details/luckybag1923unse|class=1923
|picture=1923 Trotter LB.jpg
|LBName=Frank Adelbert Trotter
|LBHometown=Sapulpa, Oklahoma
|LBNickname="Trot" "Frank"
|LBText=SAPULPA boasts two ardent advertisers—a Pullman car—and Deb. But if you ever see Deb doing a Pavlowa around the corridors you'll realize that he is worth a Parlor car. Happy-go-lucky as they make them, he has had a running fight with the N. A. regs for four years. Profs, books, and grease marks worry him not a bit. When the Executive Department fails to amuse him over the week-end, he is always among the front rank of those dragging. "Bricked" isn't in the young man's vocabulary for he protects himself with a Useful Table classifying the inmates of Washington's most popular havens of beauty. Although Deb has run into shallow water quite frequently, his good nature and a stiff fight has pulled him through. Sea-faring life is not the ambition of Sapulpee's own, but whatever he finally decided upon for his life-work, we'll be willing to wager that he'll be topside.
</p><p>
"Say, did I ever show you Mrs. Trotter? Boy, she's some woman."
|LBECAs=''Expert Rifleman.''
|LBOther=Frank resigned from the Naval Academy on February 13, 1923; perhaps this was after the Lucky Bag publishing deadline?}}

== Loss ==
Frank was one of nine servicemen and three civilians killed on June 8, 1942 when two blimps ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-class_blimp G-1] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-class_blimp L-2]) collided at night off the New Jersey shore during an exercise to test an experimental photoflash bomb that would be used to illuminate submerged submarines. He was pilot of the blimp G-1.

== Other Information ==
He earned his wings as naval aviator (lighter than air) #4779 on April 3, 1933; he is listed as an Ensign, USNR. He is listed as a LTjg in the 1941 Register of Naval Reserve Officers; he was an "A-VS" with a date of rank of December 9, 1936. His "Pay Service as of Jan. 1, 1941" was 9 years, 11 months, 14 days. (Obtained his date of birth from this document.)

From researcher Kathy Franz:
<blockquote>
Frank was born in Talihina, Oklahoma, and married Marjorie Pylant of Nashville on August 18, 1930, in Summit, Ohio. Frank’s father was Charles who died before 1920. His mother was Hattie who was a teacher at the ward school in Sapulpa in 1920, his sister was Naomi, and his brother was Adelbert. 

Frank served as an official navy observer aboard the German airship Hindenburg in 1938, making several Atlantic crossings on that ship. He also was well known as a competitor in free balloon races. He competed in 1933 with Ward T. Van Orman in the Bennett race and a terrific storm carried their big bag into Canada. They crashed in northern Ontario and the two aeronauts lived in the wilds of the Temagami forest for a week before being found by woodcutters.

On July 2, 1943, at a celebration for the christening of the newest Goodyear-built K ship, Frank and eight other men lost in lighter-than-air flight were honored with a [https://www.goodyearblimp.com/relive-history/#page/28 memorial tablet on a granite rock at] the Wingfoot Lake station at Suffield, Ohio. The other honorees were: CDR [[LOUIS H. MAXFIELD, CDR, USN|Louis Maxfield '07]], on the British ship ZR-2 in 1921, LCDR [[ZACHARY LANSDOWNE, LCDR, USN|Zachary Lansdowne '09]] in the Shenandoah crash in 1925, LT Charles Bauch on the U.S.S. Akron in 1931, LCDR [[EMORY W. COIL, LCDR, USN|Emory Coil '12]] in 1921, LT Arthur R. Houghton in 1925, LT [[HENRY W. HOYT, LT, USN|Henry Hoyt '14]] in 1921, LT J. B. Lawrence in 1925, and LT C. G. Little in 1921.
</blockquote>

== Photographs ==
<gallery mode=packed heights=350px style="text-align:left">
File:1923 Trotter 1.jpg|Photo from the St. Louis Post Dispatch on June 9, 1942
File:1923 Trotter 2.jpg|Photo from the Tampa Bay Times on June 10, 1942
File:1923 Trotter 3.jpg|Photo the Tampa Times on June 9, 1942
File:1923 Trotter 4.jpg|Photo from The Tennessean on June 10, 1942
</gallery>

== Note ==
The Lucky Bag gives his hometown as "Sapulpee." Google maps redirects this to Sapulpa, and a [https://digital.libraries.ou.edu/sooner/articles/p16-19_1943v15n12_OCR.pdf list of Oklahomans missing in action] gives Sapulpa as his hometown as well. Have changed the Lucky Bag above to reflect this.

== Related Articles ==
[[CLINTON S. ROUNDS, LCDR, USN|Clinton Rounds '27]] was piloting the other airship.

{{NDexplainer}}
{{ND|date=November 1940|rank=Lieutenant (j.g.)|command=Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey|billet=naval reserve}}
{{ND|date=April 1941|rank=Lieutenant (j.g.)|command=Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey|billet=naval reserve}}

{{MHE|text=== Memorial Hall Error ==
Frank was not in the regular Navy; he was a reservist on active duty. Memorial Hall has "USN."}}

{{ClassNav|PAGE_ID={{PAGEID}}|Name=Frank|ClassYear=1923|PreviousPersonLink=MATTHIAS M. MARPLE, JR., LT, USN|PreviousPersonName=Matthias Marple, Jr. '23|NextPersonLink=WILLIAM M. HAYNSWORTH, JR., CDR, USN|NextPersonName=William Haynsworth, Jr. '23}}

[[Category:1923|Trotter]]
[[Category:US Naval Reserve|Trotter]]
[[Category:Operational loss|Trotter]]
[[Category:Airship|Trotter]]
[[Category:Non-graduate|Trotter]]
[[Category:MH error-rank]]
{{OpLoss|uncorrected=FRANK A. TROTTER, LT, USN}}