Edgar Chase '32
Date of birth: September 12, 1910
Date of death: October 17, 1942
Age: 32
Lucky Bag
From the 1932 Lucky Bag:
EDGAR GRIFFITH CHASE
Washington, D.C.
"Barney" "Ed" "Izzy"
The tow-haired boy is another example of our men without a country. He hails from that section of our country generally known as Washington, D. C. And, therefore, forfeits all rights to partisanship in titanic "rebel" arguments.
Barney, the record shows, has found himself oftentimes being weighed in the balance of the academic departments and found not wanting, but sometimes by the merest scratch. They have been baying at his trail at every turn, but since the burial of Math (?) he has valiantly shaken them off.
Being unsat with the academic and executive departments, while for the moment vexatious, has not altered this care- free boy's happy nature. In fact that is his dominating characteristic: to look upon nothing but the sunny side of life. Weekends and hops find him bubbling over with happiness over a new find or a recurring old find.
Barney is as stout-hearted a fellow as ever won the esteem of his classmates. We can but look forward to serving with just as stout-hearted an officer in the fleet.
2 P. O.
Loss
Captioned simply "off to war."
Edgar was lost on October 17, 1942, two days after USS Meredith (DD 434) was sunk by Japanese air attack. He and dozens of other survivors had not been rescued; he "had become increasingly disoriented, the result of the concussion he had sustained from a bomb explosion on the ship. Early on the second day, he stood up in the raft and said, "I think I'll get some cigarettes." Before he could be restrained, he dove off, swam away, and was never seen again."
Edgar was the ship's executive officer; he had been engineering officer when the ship was commissioned. His wartime experience and actions are included in "The Short Life of a Valiant Ship: USS Meredith (DD434)" by Barry Friedman and Robert Robinson.
His wife was listed as next of kin; he was also survived by a young son.
His memorial is in the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial, Philippines.
Namesake
USS Edgar G. Chase (DE 16) was named for Edgar.
Class of 1932
Edgar is one of 52 members of the Class of 1932 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
