CARL H. ZIEHR, ENS, USN

Carl Ziehr '42

Date of birth: unknown

Date of death: May 8, 1942

Age: 23

Lucky Bag

From the 1942 Lucky Bag:

CARL HALLEY ZIEHR

Detroit, Michigan

Carly, Z.

Here is the eleventh company’s choice for President of the Red Mikes’ Club. Detroit’s girls are too far away, and Carl will take no chances on getting bricked. Having served a year and a half at Detroit’s Naval Reserve Air Base, he had the jump on the rest of us during the flight course of “Country Club” summer. His quiet manner and genial nature make him well liked by all who know him.

C.P.O.

The Class of 1942 graduated on December 19, 1941, less than two weeks after the United States entered World War II. The class had previously been scheduled to graduate in February 1942.

CARL HALLEY ZIEHR

Detroit, Michigan

Carly, Z.

Here is the eleventh company’s choice for President of the Red Mikes’ Club. Detroit’s girls are too far away, and Carl will take no chances on getting bricked. Having served a year and a half at Detroit’s Naval Reserve Air Base, he had the jump on the rest of us during the flight course of “Country Club” summer. His quiet manner and genial nature make him well liked by all who know him.

C.P.O.

The Class of 1942 graduated on December 19, 1941, less than two weeks after the United States entered World War II. The class had previously been scheduled to graduate in February 1942.

Loss

Carl was lost when USS Lexington (CV 2) was attacked by Japanese aircraft on May 8, 1942 in the Battle of the Coral Sea. He was a member of the gunnery department.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Carl graduated from Catholic Central High School in 1936. He was a University of Detroit sophomore when he received his appointment to the Naval Academy by Rep. George D. O’Brien in 1938. Carl was currently an officer in the Navy Reserve Aviation Base Unit at Grosse Ile. He had been flying for a year and was secretary of the U. of D. Flying Club.
Carl’s friend Tom McLoughlin, a 1942 graduate of the University of Detroit, organized the “Titan Avengers” at the university in honor of Carl.
In 1940 Detroit, father Frank was a bookkeeper for a banana importing company, mother Blanche, and sister Jean Grace.

From the Detroit Free Press, July 28, 1942 via researcher Kathy Franz:

Dead Ensign’s Pal Eases a Mother’s Grief
By Lyford Moore
The two young ensigns were classmates at Annapolis. The first assignment to duty of each as an officer was aboard the USS Lexington. Each was present when the Battle of the Coral Sea began.
Then, however, the parallel ended. Ensign Robert Baughan, 23 years old, of Huntington, W. Va., returned to the United States a lieutenant. Ensign Carl H. Ziehr, 23, of 1166 Taylor did not return.
Killed in Action
After a valiant struggle against 60 attacking Jap planes, the Lexington was sunk. Ziehr died in action.
Baughan, on his way to his new assignment aboard a brand new United States warship, stopped off in Detroit Monday for 24 hours.
He had but little time. His bride, Eleanor, wanted him to meet the family of her uncle, George E. Bushnell, the State Supreme Court justice.
But one of his hours Monday was spent at the home of Baughan’s friend, Ensign Ziehr.
Ziehr’s mother had only a fragmentary report of her son’s death and had been deeply shocked when told that he had been smothered to death slowly.
Lieut. Baughan was able to relieve her mind by informing her that Carl had died instantaneously.
Lieut. Baughan’s duties on the carrier were direction of the ship’s antiaircraft batteries, and from that spot – 160 feet above the water – he watched the battle, from the moment the 60 enemy planes flew in till the Lexington, badly battered, was sunk by American warships later.
“I felt safe up there at first,” he said, “for the first Japs to arrive were torpedo planes. Their stuff hit so far below me I had no sense of danger.
“But then the dive-bombers came, and that was different. Then it was all around me, and I stopped watching planes to watch the bombs themselves. The attack lasted 20 minutes.
Picked Up Later
Baughan spoke of abandoning ship five hours later and of swimming in the heavy sea until he was picked up by another ship. He was later transferred to San Diego.
He had sincere praise for his shipmate, for Carl Ziehr, whom he called “brilliant – probably the most outstanding man of our time at Annapolis” – to Capt. (now Rear Admiral) Frederick C. Sherman, of Port Huron, who commanded the Lexington. Sherman, Baughan said, could “do things with the Lexington that most people couldn’t do with a rowboat.”

His father was listed as next of kin; his mother and a sister were alive as of June 1941, when they reportedly visited him in Annapolis.

Carl has a memory marker in Battle of the Coral Sea Memorial Park; he is also listed at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag

Date of Birth

Carl was appointed to the Naval Academy on July 16, 1938 when he was 19 years 7 months old. This would place his date of birth in either late 1918 or early 1919; in either case he was 23 years old when he was lost.

Class of 1942

Carl is one of 82 members of the Class of 1942 on Virtual Memorial Hall.

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