FREDERICK G. KAHN, LTJG, USN
Frederick Kahn '21
Lucky Bag
From the 1921 Lucky Bag:
Loss
Frederick was lost on January 14, 1926 when the airplane he was piloting crashed into San Diego Bay. He and his crewman both died; they were attached to USS West Virginia (BB 48).
From researcher Kathy Franz:
At the time of Frederick's death, his father was the general sales manager of Truscon Steel Company in Youngstown, Ohio. He was born in Germany, and he married Fannie Slocum, a woman born in Colombia. She had a child from a previous marriage. Frederick's younger brother Arnold was a mechanical engineer at the steel company. His sister Dorothea was a teacher. Frederick's uncle Albert Kahn was a Detroit architect. Frederick was actually born in Detroit.
Frederick is buried in Ohio.
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.
May 1923
Ensign, USS Reno
July 1923
Ensign, USS Reno
September 1923
Ensign, USS Reno
November 1923
Ensign, USS Reno
January 1924
Ensign, under instruction, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida
Others at this command:
March 1924
Lieutenant (j.g.), under instruction, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida
Others at this command:
May 1924
Lieutenant (j.g.), under instruction, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida
Others at this command:
July 1924
Lieutenant (j.g.), under instruction, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida
Others at this command:
September 1924
Ensign, under instruction, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida
Others at this command:
November 1924
Ensign, for assignment, Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Fleet, USS Aroostook
Others at this command:
January 1925
Lieutenant (j.g.), for assignment, Aircraft Squadrons, Battle Fleet, USS Aroostook
Others at this command:
March 1925
Lieutenant (j.g.), Scouting Plane Squadron 2
Others at this command:
May 1925
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Colorado
Others at this command:
July 1925
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Colorado
Others at this command:
October 1925
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Colorado
Others at this command:
January 1926
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Colorado
Others at this command:
Class of 1921
Frederick is one of 32 members of the Class of 1921 on Virtual Memorial Hall.