BURTON L. DOGGETT, LCDR, USN
Burton Doggett '24
Lucky Bag
From the 1924 Lucky Bag:
Loss
Burton was lost when the transport plane he was aboard crashed near Kodiak, Alaska, on August 16, 1942.
From Wartime Press, this undated passage:
Plane With 14 Missing in Alaska - A U.S. Navy plane with a crew of four and ten passengers enroute from Kodiak to Whitehorse, Alaska was reported overdue by the Navy Department, which notified next of kin of those aboard that the crew and passengers were missing. The flight was a routine one from Kodiak to Seattle, Wash. Three planes started on the trip and were forced to fly by instrument soon after taking off. Two made their way through the bad weather to Whitehorse. Naval aircraft have been making searches for the missing plane and other agencies were asked to assist in the search.
Those aboard the missing plane were Commander Joyce A. Ralph, USN; Lieut. Comdrs. Burton Lee Doggett, USN, Jerome H. Sparbo. USNR and Paul H. Tobelman, USN; Captain Arthur Barrows. USMC; Lieuts. Joseph A. Crook, USN and Thomas E. Johnson. Jr. (ChC), USN; Lieuts. (j.g.) Thomas G. Cherikos, USNR. Charles E. Deterding, USN and Jay A. Noble, Jr.. USN: Ensign Charles L. Mixon, USNR; Charles E. Barber. ACRM. USN; H. A. Scott, ACRM, USN, and C O. Walton, AMM2c. USN.
The aircraft was never located, and all 14 passengers and crew were declared dead a year and a day following their disappearance. The aircraft was a part of Transport Squadron (VR) 2.
His wife was listed as next of kin; he was also survived by his son, Burton Jr., a member of the Naval Academy Class of 1951. (Burton Lee Doggett III died in 2017.)
Career
He had previously had command of USS Gilmre (DD 233), from July 1940 to August 1941.
Related Articles
Joyce Ralph '23, Paul Tobelman '26, Joseph Crook '36, Charles Deterding, Jr. '40, and Jay Noble, Jr. '40 were also passengers aboard this aircraft.
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.
September 1924
Ensign, USS California
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November 1924
Ensign, USS California
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January 1925
Ensign, USS California
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March 1925
Ensign, USS California
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May 1925
Ensign, USS Parrott
October 1926
Ensign, USS Peary
January 1927
Ensign, USS Peary
April 1927
Ensign, USS Peary
October 1927
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Peary
January 1928
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Peary
April 1928
Lieutenant (j.g.), "ordered to U.S."
July 1928
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Mullany
October 1928
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Mullany
January 1929
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Mullany
April 1929
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Mullany
July 1929
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Mullany
October 1929
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Mullany
January 1930
Lieutenant (j.g.), gunnery officer, USS Mullany
April 1930
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Lea
October 1930
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Lexington
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LTjg Dick Downer '27 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 3B)
January 1931
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Lexington
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Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg Dick Downer '27 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 3B)
April 1931
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia
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July 1931
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia
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October 1931
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia
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January 1932
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia
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April 1932
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia
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October 1932
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia
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January 1933
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia
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April 1933
Lieutenant (j.g.), Naval Training Station, Norfolk, Virginia
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July 1933
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS New York
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October 1933
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS New York
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April 1934
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS New York
October 1935
Lieutenant, USS New York
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January 1936
Lieutenant, USS New York
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April 1936
Lieutenant, officer in charge, Navy Recruiting Station Raleigh, North Carolina
July 1936
Lieutenant, officer in charge, Navy Recruiting Station Raleigh, North Carolina
January 1937
Lieutenant, officer in charge, Navy Recruiting Station Raleigh, North Carolina
April 1937
Lieutenant, officer in charge, Navy Recruiting Station Raleigh, North Carolina
September 1937
Lieutenant, officer in charge, Navy Recruiting Station Raleigh, North Carolina
January 1938
Lieutenant, officer in charge, Navy Recruiting Station Raleigh, North Carolina
July 1938
Lieutenant, officer in charge, Navy Recruiting Station Raleigh, North Carolina
January 1939
Lieutenant, flag secretary, Special Service Squadron, USS Charleston
October 1939
Lieutenant Commander, flag secretary, Special Service Squadron, USS Charleston
June 1940
Lieutenant Commander, flag secretary, Special Service Squadron, USS Charleston
November 1940
Lieutenant Commander, commanding officer, USS Gilmer
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April 1941
Lieutenant Commander, commanding officer, USS Gilmer
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Class of 1924
Burton is one of 42 members of the Class of 1924 on Virtual Memorial Hall.