HENRY J. SCHMIDT, LTJG, USN

Henry Schmidt '22

Date of birth: May 6, 1898

Date of death: January 12, 1929

Age: 30

Lucky Bag

From the 1922 Lucky Bag:

HENRY JOHN SCHMIDT

Brooklyn, New York

"Harry," "Schmitty," "Dutch," "Abel," "Butch."

HE WAS famous before he ever held up his right hand and murmured "I do," for he was the big noise in a dancing contest back in Ozone Park, and take it from us, it's no small thing to be the premiere danseuse of that town.

Schmidt had his hands full Plebe Year trying to look enough like a Plebe so that he wouldn't be mistaken for his 2 P. O. or twin brother. His best method was to shine his shoes, and the habit so grew that his roommate hasn't bought shoeblacking since.

With the advent of his first decoration he busted out at the hops where he made an enviable record, which never was and never will be even approached. He dragged all the Crabs within the limits of our liberty for a grand average of a point five. He's so good looking himself, however, that when he does drag a whole section of street paving the average for the two of them is well over a three-o. Amen!

Sub. Squad (4, 3, 2); I.L. Club (4, 3, 2).

HENRY JOHN SCHMIDT

Brooklyn, New York

"Harry," "Schmitty," "Dutch," "Abel," "Butch."

HE WAS famous before he ever held up his right hand and murmured "I do," for he was the big noise in a dancing contest back in Ozone Park, and take it from us, it's no small thing to be the premiere danseuse of that town.

Schmidt had his hands full Plebe Year trying to look enough like a Plebe so that he wouldn't be mistaken for his 2 P. O. or twin brother. His best method was to shine his shoes, and the habit so grew that his roommate hasn't bought shoeblacking since.

With the advent of his first decoration he busted out at the hops where he made an enviable record, which never was and never will be even approached. He dragged all the Crabs within the limits of our liberty for a grand average of a point five. He's so good looking himself, however, that when he does drag a whole section of street paving the average for the two of them is well over a three-o. Amen!

Sub. Squad (4, 3, 2); I.L. Club (4, 3, 2).

Loss

Henry was lost on January 12, 1929 when he disappeared from USS Arkansas (BB 33) while that ship was at sea from Hampton Roads to the Panama Canal Zone.

Other Information

From the Times Union, Brooklyn, New York, January 25, 1929, via researcher Kathy Franz:

His mother Mary said, “He will be found. There was no reason for him to take his life and I am sure he did not. He is a strong swimmer and I feel that he must have slipped and fallen overboard, and that he has been picked up by some boat bound for South America. Why I received a letter from him only last night. He had written it while the ship was at Hampton Roads, but it evidently missed the last mail and was carried to Panama. In it he tells me of his joy of anticipation of meeting his twin brother, Frank, who is a lieutenant aboard a Navy submarine at the maneuver off Colon, Republic of Panama.
The twins graduated from Boys’ High School and then Annapolis in 1922. Henry was assigned to the U.S.S. Rochester and six months ago was transferred to the Arkansas, with Captain Ellis, who had been his commander on the Rochester. Frank was assigned to the submarine S-1. His mother is a widow and had two other sons, one older and one younger than the twins, both of whom reside with her.
Captain Ellis wrote her and said that Harry had been busy during his free time cleaning up his room, to which he had been transferred due to the presence of several aviators aboard the ship. He had old clothes on and had been painting. He walked up to the bridge, joked with the officer in charge and spoke to the captain. He was never seen again and his absence was not discovered until the next morning, when a sailor went to whiten his shoes and found Harry’s room empty. His uniform was laid out on his bed.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Henry was known as “Happy Harry.”
In May 1916, Henry and his brother Fred attended the regular dance of the Norwood A. C. of Parkville. The music was furnished by the Norwood Tango Band. Henry recited a parody on “Barbara Freitchie.” He was treasurer of the club.
Henry’s twin brother Frank graduated in the Class of 1920. Their father was John, a butcher.
Henry’s mother was Marie Sophia (Wahlen) Schmidt who lived at 51 Argyle Road in Flatbush. His mother had dreams of the word Picardo and that Henry was stranded on that island. She tried to get the Navy to send a ship to look for him, but they decided it was futile. Henry’s ship was over 35 miles from land when he was found missing.
In 1920, brother Frank was on the USS Birmingham in San Diego. When Henry died, Frank was on the S-1 submarine. In July 1937, Frank was married and sailed from France to Baltimore. He lived at 95 Farragut Road, Hastings-On-Hudson, New York.
In 1930, brothers Arthur Edwin and John and their mother lived 95 Farragut Road. Arthur was a civil engineer on the subway, and John was an accountant for an automobile company. In 1940, they lived on Forster Place in the Bronx.
His father John died between 1920 and 1930.

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.