DAVID PURDON, JR., LCDR, USN

David Purdon, Jr. '40

Date of birth: September 7, 1916

Date of death: October 27, 1950

Age: 34

Lucky Bag

From the 1940 Lucky Bag:

DAVID PURDON, JR.

Larelton, Long Island, New York

Dave

There are few midshipmen who have more staunch friends than Dave. This is not without reason, since he has a facility for making and holding personal allegiances. Dave's happy attitude throughout the day, and his knack of converting worries into trivialities make him an exceptionally good roommate. He is a natural athlete and a natural student — during those last frantic moments before class we can always rely on Dave to savvy the difficult probs. Despite the fact that he persists in buying Sunday papers sans comics, we unanimously predict that Dave will be one of the best young officers in the fleet.

Boxing 40, 4; Baseball N.A., 3, 2; 2 Stripes.

DAVID PURDON, JR.

Larelton, Long Island, New York

Dave

There are few midshipmen who have more staunch friends than Dave. This is not without reason, since he has a facility for making and holding personal allegiances. Dave's happy attitude throughout the day, and his knack of converting worries into trivialities make him an exceptionally good roommate. He is a natural athlete and a natural student — during those last frantic moments before class we can always rely on Dave to savvy the difficult probs. Despite the fact that he persists in buying Sunday papers sans comics, we unanimously predict that Dave will be one of the best young officers in the fleet.

Boxing 40, 4; Baseball N.A., 3, 2; 2 Stripes.

Loss

David was lost in a crash of an AJ-1 Savage immediately following takeoff from USS Franklin D. Roosevelt (CV 42) near Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The crash also killed another crewman. The bombardier/navigator was able to escape and was rescued.

There is a video of the incident:

Memorial Hall Error

David is listed in the Lucky Bag and other sources as a "Jr.;" this is omitted from Memorial Hall.

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.

June 1940

Ensign, USS Richmond

November 1940

Ensign, USS Richmond

April 1941

Ensign, USS Richmond

Class of 1940

David is one of 91 members of the Class of 1940 on Virtual Memorial Hall.