JAMES J. OWENS, CAPT, USMC
James Owens '38
Lucky Bag
From the 1938 Lucky Bag:
Loss
James was lost when the SNJ trainer aircraft he was aboard crashed near Santa Barbara, California, on September 18, 1942. Another Marine Corps Captain also perished; they were searching for a missing plane and two other officers.
He is buried in Minnesota.
Other
From naval aviation historian Richard Leonard via email on February 9, 2018:
He had an earlier crash in which he was not injured. NAS San Diego war diary entry for 6 July 1942:
“1516 * J2F-5 #00733 attached to Marine Air Wing TWO, crashed making a rough water landing, two (2) miles north of Prisoner’s Harbor, Santa Cruz Island. PBY-1, #0138, plane enroute Alameda to San Diego diverted to scene to search for plane and personnel. Captain James J Owens, USMC, pilot, and his passenger Lt. Col. Utterbach, USA, rescued by Naval section base boat ‘PACIFICO’”.
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.
July 1938
2nd Lieutenant, Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Others at this command: 2LT Dorrance Radcliffe '38, 2LT Douglas Keeler '38, and 2LT John Maclaughlin, Jr. '38.
Others at or embarked at Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: CDR Walter Webster '11 (Naval Aircraft Factory), LT John Welch '23 (Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), LT Dudley Morton '30 (Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), and LTjg Edward Allen '31 (Naval Aircraft Factory).
January 1939
2nd Lieutenant, Marine Corps Schools, Marine Barracks, Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Others at this command: 2LT Dorrance Radcliffe '38, 2LT Douglas Keeler '38, and 2LT John Maclaughlin, Jr. '38.
Others at or embarked at Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: CAPT Walter Webster '11 (Naval Aircraft Factory), LT John Welch '23 (Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), LT Dudley Morton '30 (Navy Yard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), LTjg Edward Allen '31 (Naval Aircraft Factory), and ENS Louis Gulliver, Jr. '36 (Naval Finance and Supply School).
October 1939
2nd Lieutenant, Marine Barracks, Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois
June 1940
2nd Lieutenant, Marine Barracks, Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Illinois
November 1940
2nd Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida
Others at this command: LCDR George Grove '15, CDR William Sample '19, LT Finley Hall '29, LT John Yoho '29, LT William Pennewill '29, LT Lance Massey '30, LT Albert Major, Jr. '32, LT Daniel Gothie '32, LT Dewitt Shumway '32, LT George Bellinger '32, LT John Spiers '32, LT Martin Koivisto '32, ENS Frank Peterson '33, LTjg John Phillips, Jr. '33, LTjg Charles Ware '34, LTjg Charles Brewer '34, CAPT Floyd Parks '34, LTjg Frank Whitaker '34, LTjg George Nicol '34, LTjg Philip Torrey, Jr. '34, LTjg Walker Ethridge '34, LTjg Allan Edmands '35, LTjg John Powers '35, LTjg Richard Stephenson '35, LTjg Victor Gadrow '35, LTjg Porter Maxwell '36, LTjg Roy Krogh '36, LTjg Frank Henderson, Jr. '37, LTjg John Thomas '37, LTjg John Boal '37, LTjg Richard Hughes '37, ENS Alphonse Minvielle '38, ENS Carl Holmstrom '38, ENS Charles Anderson '38, ENS Charles King '38, ENS Charles Reimann '38, ENS Curtis Howard '38, ENS Donald Smith '38, 2LT Douglas Keeler '38, ENS Edmundo Gandia '38, ENS Eric Allen, Jr. '38, ENS Frank Quady '38, ENS Frank Case, Jr. '38, ENS Harry Bass '38, ENS Harry Howell '38, ENS Howard Clark '38, ENS Howard Fischer '38, ENS James Ginn '38, ENS Jep Jonson '38, ENS John Kelley '38, ENS John Erickson '38, 2LT John Maclaughlin, Jr. '38, ENS John Eversole '38, ENS Leonard Thornhill '38, ENS Marion Dufilho '38, ENS Osborne Wiseman '38, ENS Oswald Zink '38, ENS Richard Crommelin '38, ENS Robert Seibels, Jr. '38, ENS Roy Green, Jr. '38, ENS Roy Hale, Jr. '38, ENS William Brady '38, ENS William Tate, Jr. '38, and ENS William Lamberson '38.
April 1941
2nd Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida
Others at this command: CDR William Sample '19, LT Finley Hall '29, LT John Yoho '29, LT William Pennewill '29, LT William Sisko '31, LT Albert Major, Jr. '32, LT Archibald Greenlee '32, LT Daniel Gothie '32, LT George Bellinger '32, LT John Spiers '32, LT Martin Koivisto '32, ENS Frank Peterson '33, LTjg John McCormack, Jr. '33, LTjg John Phillips, Jr. '33, LTjg Robert Isely '33, LTjg Charles Brewer '34, CAPT Floyd Parks '34, LTjg Frank Whitaker '34, LTjg George Nicol '34, LTjg Philip Torrey, Jr. '34, LTjg Walker Ethridge '34, LTjg Wendell Froling '34, LTjg Clyde McCroskey, Jr. '35, LTjg Edward Denney '35, LTjg John Ennis '35, LTjg Richard Stephenson '35, LTjg Harlan Dickson '36, LTjg Raymond Vogel, Jr. '36, ENS Charles Anderson '38, 2LT Douglas Keeler '38, ENS Oswald Zink '38, ENS Robert Seibels, Jr. '38, ENS Charles Stapler '39, ENS Dudley Adams '39, ENS John Dunn '39, and ENS Robert Whitman, Jr. '39.
Others at or embarked at this command: 2LT Alfred Gordon '39 (Marine Barracks).
Class of 1938
James is one of 71 members of the Class of 1938 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
