BURTON R. HANSON, ENS, USN

Burton Hanson '40

Date of birth: February 14, 1918

Date of death: February 28, 1942

Age: 24

Lucky Bag

From the 1940 Lucky Bag:

BURTON ROALKVAAM HANSON

Two Rivers, Wisconsin

Ollie

We call him "Roily Oily" and Jakey Reed claims him as his problem child. Afternoons you can expect to see Oily trucking on over to the swimming pool to partake of his favorite hobby or lugging a rifle on his shoulder as he guides the extra duty squad. Because of his particular fondness for reading (not texts) Oily is seen of late peeping from behind a pair of horn-rimmed specks. He is the soul of congeniality and included among his countless friends are practically all of the plebes. The day that Oily lets go the brake on his natural genius, we expect to be very proud of him.

Swimming 4, 3, 2, 1.

BURTON ROALKVAAM HANSON

Two Rivers, Wisconsin

Ollie

We call him "Roily Oily" and Jakey Reed claims him as his problem child. Afternoons you can expect to see Oily trucking on over to the swimming pool to partake of his favorite hobby or lugging a rifle on his shoulder as he guides the extra duty squad. Because of his particular fondness for reading (not texts) Oily is seen of late peeping from behind a pair of horn-rimmed specks. He is the soul of congeniality and included among his countless friends are practically all of the plebes. The day that Oily lets go the brake on his natural genius, we expect to be very proud of him.

Swimming 4, 3, 2, 1.

Loss

"Oily" was lost when USS Jacob Jones (DD 130) was torpedoed on the morning of February 28, 1942 by U-578 off the coast of Delaware.

From the March 3, 1942 Naval communique reprinted in the April, 1942 issue of Shipmates:

The USS JACOB JONES, a World War destroyer, was sunk by an enemy submarine off Cape May, New Jersey, just before dawn on February 28, 1942.
There were only eleven survivors consisting of nine engine room ratings and two apprentice seamen. Factual information in regard to the circumstances that led to the sinking is sparse because of the lack of deck ratings among the survivors. It has been established, however, that prior to receiving the first torpedo hit, the enemy submarine was not sighted nor was the torpedo.
The first torpedo blew up the bow and apparently killed all the personnel on the bridge as well as the men sleeping in the forward living compartments. The second torpedo, which was fired after the submarine circled ahead of the JACOB JONES, blew up the stern and all the depth charges.
The only survivors, except one man from the after engine room, were in the amidship section when the stern was blown up.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Per Leader-Telegram, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, March 4, 1942. “Until last fall Ensign Hanson had been stationed with the Pacific fleet, but at his request for a post in which he could obtain more engineering experience he was transferred to the Jones last November.”
Burton was nominated to the Naval Academy by Congressman George J. Schneider of Appleton.
In 1930, his father was a manager of a lumber yard, mother Anna, sisters Marie, Betty and Dorothy, and brothers Philip, Frederick and Edward.

He is listed at the East Coast Memorial; he has a memory marker in Wisconsin. His father was listed as next of kin.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag

Career

From History of Class of 1940:

Olie, a native of Wisconsin, was on the swimming team at the Academy. A genial, easygoing gentleman, he faced life and academics with equanimity. On graduation, he reported to light cruiser BROOKLYN (CL-40) in Pearl Harbor. After a year in the Hawaiian area and a goodwill trip to New Zealand, the ship was transferred to the Atlantic, where it was involved in "neutrality patrols" and convoy protection. In July; 1941, it was a unit of Task Force 19 in the initial occupation of Iceland. Olie served as radio officer until detached in December of 1941. On December 20, 1941, he reported on board recommissioned four-piper JACOB JONES (DD-130) at Boston Navy Yard as gunnery officer, in charge of the ship's four 4-inch guns, two torpedo mounts, and a depth charge battery as the country mobilized all available anti-submarine capability to meet the Nazi U-boat threat. By January, 1942, the ship was involved in convoys to and from England. On February 6, after a stormy crossing, JACOB JONES released the last ships of eastbound convoy ON-59 south of Newfoundland and was assigned to hunt U-boats on the East coast, where Allied shipping was being ravaged.
On February 28, 1942, off the Delaware Gapes, German submarine U-578 torpedoed JACOB JONES in a night surface attack. The four-stacker broke in two and most of its crew was lost, including Ensign Hanson. Olie was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart. His friends and shipmates remember him with great affection and a deep sense of loss. Ray Hundevadt

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.