JACK E. BRENNER, LT, USN

Jack Brenner '39

Date of birth: October 21, 1917

Date of death: December 27, 1942

Age: 25

Lucky Bag

From the 1939 Lucky Bag:

JACK ELLIS BRENNER

Okmulgee, Oklahoma

Jack, Jake

From a lonely little plebe with a lost air, Jack has become a self-controlled, nonchalant upperclassman. Okmulgee can justly be proud of him. He has taken part in several extra-curricular activities, made an excellent scholastic record, and helped many a wooden man along. Above all he has made lasting friendship—it comes naturally to him. Neither a redmike nor a snake, Jack has done his quota of dragging without placing too much emphasis on either role. To his inquisitive attitude towards everything in general can be attributed his habit of studying very little. Reading some current book during a study hour and then "guessing" his way to starring marks in class is an everyday occurrence with him. How does he do it? Even he doesn't know.

Boxing 4; Cross Country 4, 3; Company Rifle 2; Musical Club Show 4, 3, 2; Orchestra 4, 3, 2; Quarterdeck 2, 1; Star 4; 2 Stripes.

JACK ELLIS BRENNER

Okmulgee, Oklahoma

Jack, Jake

From a lonely little plebe with a lost air, Jack has become a self-controlled, nonchalant upperclassman. Okmulgee can justly be proud of him. He has taken part in several extra-curricular activities, made an excellent scholastic record, and helped many a wooden man along. Above all he has made lasting friendship—it comes naturally to him. Neither a redmike nor a snake, Jack has done his quota of dragging without placing too much emphasis on either role. To his inquisitive attitude towards everything in general can be attributed his habit of studying very little. Reading some current book during a study hour and then "guessing" his way to starring marks in class is an everyday occurrence with him. How does he do it? Even he doesn't know.

Boxing 4; Cross Country 4, 3; Company Rifle 2; Musical Club Show 4, 3, 2; Orchestra 4, 3, 2; Quarterdeck 2, 1; Star 4; 2 Stripes.

Loss

Jack was lost when the PB2Y-3 Catalina patrol plane he was piloting crashed into the Salton Sea in California on December 27, 1942. Seven men were killed; the remaining two were injured.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Jack was born in Iowa. He graduated in 1935 from Okmulgee High School with honors in French, Latin, Mathematics, and Science. He was also a member of the scholastic honor society.
His parents were Martin and Elizabeth. The family lived in Kansas City, Missouri, for 20 years. In 1938, his brother Arthur died from pneumonia after a motor accident. His father ran the Martin’s Men’s Wear and Luggage store in Okmulgee.
Jack was appointed to the Naval Academy by Congressman Jack Nichols.
Jack married Edna Constance Vize on June 1, 1941, at the Church of the Crossroads, Honolulu. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor on USS Flusser when the Japanese attacked.
Congressman Nichols attended Jack’s funeral and wrote: “The flag-draped coffin was carried by a group of naval officers with an escort of soldiers and marines and a navy band furnished the music. In the background could be seen the activity surrounding the Pentagon building, covering 40-acres, the largest office building in the world and headquarters of our Army, National Airport and the capital city itself. But in the little nook where the relatives and I stood there was a strange and holy calm, broken by the traditional three volleys from the Blue Jacket firing squad. Lieutenant Brenner has joined the heroic dead of America’s past.”

Okmulgee Daily Times, July 23, 1936:

Customs and life in Sweden were interestingly described in letters to his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Martin Brenner, of Okmulgee, by Midshipman Jack Brenner of the United States Naval academy.
The midshipmen are making their annual cruise and have visited England and are now in Sweden. From Sweden they will go to France. The letters were written from Goteborg, Sweden, on July 7.
Young Brenner says that living is very cheap in Sweden and that he and his roommate have one of the finest rooms in the best hotel in Goteborg for five kronen, 40 ore per day, $1.30 in American money. An excellent dinner costs but forty cents.
When they feel like dancing they go to an amusement park, Leseberg, where they can dance a whole dance for 15 ore, or four cents. The country is very clean and beautiful and all of the girls are either pretty or beautiful, the midshipman says.
Jack also describes the port of Goteborg, the chief seaport of Sweden, and tells of the craft, plying the busy harbor, easily visible from their hotel window.
Food is much cheaper in Sweden than in England, young Brenner says. Meals that cost them 6-6 in England, $1.60, are about 40 cents in Sweden.
The midshipmen get along well in the city because they can usually find someone who knows enough English to tell them directions and answer a few questions.
He also tells of a pier near the Royal Yacht club at which the people go swimming, nude. The men swim on one side of the pier and the women on the other and no one pays much attention to the lack of bathing suits.

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery; he was survived by his wife, Edna.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag
From Sunday Times Democrat on April 20, 1941

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.