BURTON L. DOGGETT, LCDR, USN
Burton Doggett '24
Lucky Bag
From the 1924 Lucky Bag:
BURTON LEE DOGGETT
Waurika, Oklahoma
Bertie
"NOW then, all together!—Let's have the Ball Ohio and lots of volume!" is enough to introduce "B.L.," who hails from the wilds of Oklahoma. His singing classes are famous and always draw large audiences. Not having the price of a violin, he has turned to teaching, (here comes Mark Anthony!)
"B. L." is the Nav shark, par excellence—the originator of the catch-as-catch-can declination system. The only flaw lies in the fact that his efforts are as yet unappreciated, as are those of all true genius.
His other claims to fame consist of being a charter member on the extra duty squad and a politician of the first degree. Any time you can find one who parked in the hospital more times than our "Bertie", he must be a member of the "Lost Battalion". He even worked the graft so successfully as to miss Second Class cruise, enjoying instead four glorious month's leave while his classmates fought the bitter "battle of Culebra".
As for athletics, his characteristic workout consists of planting himself firmly in a chair, hoisting his feet upon the table and opening a current magazine. Surrounded by an oil-laden atmosphere, he holds sway as the "President of the Radiator Club".
"When you can't go down for an ice-cream cone without getting rammed there ain't no justice. I just can't keep off the pap."
BURTON LEE DOGGETT
Waurika, Oklahoma
Bertie
"NOW then, all together!—Let's have the Ball Ohio and lots of volume!" is enough to introduce "B.L.," who hails from the wilds of Oklahoma. His singing classes are famous and always draw large audiences. Not having the price of a violin, he has turned to teaching, (here comes Mark Anthony!)
"B. L." is the Nav shark, par excellence—the originator of the catch-as-catch-can declination system. The only flaw lies in the fact that his efforts are as yet unappreciated, as are those of all true genius.
His other claims to fame consist of being a charter member on the extra duty squad and a politician of the first degree. Any time you can find one who parked in the hospital more times than our "Bertie", he must be a member of the "Lost Battalion". He even worked the graft so successfully as to miss Second Class cruise, enjoying instead four glorious month's leave while his classmates fought the bitter "battle of Culebra".
As for athletics, his characteristic workout consists of planting himself firmly in a chair, hoisting his feet upon the table and opening a current magazine. Surrounded by an oil-laden atmosphere, he holds sway as the "President of the Radiator Club".
"When you can't go down for an ice-cream cone without getting rammed there ain't no justice. I just can't keep off the pap."
Loss
Burton was lost when the transport plane he was aboard crashed near Kodiak, Alaska, on August 16, 1942.
From a now-broken link, 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.
Other Information
From researcher Kathy Franz:
Burton graduated in 1919 from Waurika high school with 14 of his peers.
Per the Waurika News-Democrat, Oklahoma, May 16, 1919: Burton Lee Doggett is a son of Mr. and Mrs. G. E. Doggett of the Independence community and is a native of the state of Texas. He has received his training in the rural schools at Edmond State Normal, Halls Training school at Saulsbury, Missouri and at the Waurika High school, which he entered in the fall of 1912. He has an engineering career mapped out for himself and plans to pursue this course at the Oklahoma A. & M. college. Burton was a member of the S. A. T. C. at Edmond until the signing of the armistice. (S. A. T. C. was the Student Army Training Corps.)
On the Naval Academy’s first year cruise in summer 1921, Burton was struck on his back by large swinging doors as the ship was taking on coal. He left the ship at Baltimore and went home to recuperate.
Ill and in the hospital the next summer, Burton was unable to make the second year cruise in June, 1922. He spent his furlough with his parents.
Burton married Gertrude Wadsworth at Chefoo, China, on September 7, 1926.
In the fall of 1939, Burton wrote his sister Lorene a letter. He was somewhere in the Balboa Canal Zone trying to catch a ship which has been ‘bootlegging’ oil to a German sub. But he didn’t know what they’d do when they caught up with her as "we are not at war with anyone.” His wife and son Lee were there, and he thought he would send them home soon.
In July 1940, Burton, his wife and son sailed from Cristobal, Canal Zone, to New York City. His birthplace was noted as Fort Worth, Texas.
In the June 1900 census of Joshua, Texas, Burton was four months old. His father George was a farmer, and his mother was called Mollie. After moving to Oklahoma, his father was a maintenance man for the state highway. His mother Maud died in 1911. His brothers were Corbin and Byron, and his sisters were Lorene (Mrs. U. C. Miller) and Pauline who died in 1908 at five months old. His stepmother was Hazel, half-sister was Nadine, and half-brother Mortemer.
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.
Photographs
Career
He had previously had command of USS Gilmer (DD 233), from July 1940 to August 1941.
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
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LTjg Richard Downer '27 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 3B)
January 1931
LTjg Richard Downer '27 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 3B)
April 1931
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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 "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.