JOHN A. HOLLOWELL, JR., CDR, USN

John Hollowell, Jr. '22

Date of birth: August 31, 1899

Date of death: March 1, 1942

Age: 42

Lucky Bag

From the 1922 Lucky Bag:

JOHN AMBROSE HOLLOWELL, JR.

Norfolk, Virginia

"Ambrose," "Hollowhead."

AMBROSE came to us from Tennessee, but at that he's not without ambition. He is a firm believer in, and a living example of, the "Solid South." Constant contact with civilization, however, showed him the great handicap beneath which he was laboring so that he changed his residence to Norfolk,—a move in the right direction, but not far enough. A few more shifts an'—by the way, he's some shifter. Listen! He'll tell you himself: "My gang shifted that last scene in one minute flat. Professionals saw something they rarely read about."

Ambrose is noted for remarkably poor argumentative powers, a sorrowful accent, and not knowing that the Civil War is over. Nevertheless, he is the best of roommates; is heart is big and his opinions are changing. Why, he's even going to drag sometime—maybe.

Gold Masked N; Stage Manager Masqueraders (2, 1).

Loss

John was lost when USS Houston (CA 30) was sunk on on March 1, 1942 during the Battle of Sunda Strait. He was the ship's navigator.

His wife was listed as next of kin.

Remembrances

In "Ship of Ghosts", he is quoted responding to a sailor where they were going: "In a fatherly way, he draped his arm around my shoulder and, as though talking to himself, said, 'Son, we're going to hell, we're going to hell.'"

USS V-4 (Argonaut) was built with some new safety features as the results of the sinking of the USS F-4, sunk on March 25; 1915; S-5, sunk September 1, 1920; O-5, sunk October 28, 1923; and S-4, sunk on December 1, 1927 and the extreme difficulty of salvage workers to recover the submarines. Here, Lt jg John A. Hollowell is showing the two External Salvage valves that divers can use to send air to the Forward and After groups of ballast tanks from the subs own high pressure air flasks.

USS V-4 (Argonaut) was built with some new safety features such as these externally mounted salvage valves. Here, Lt jg John A. Hollowell is showing the External Salvage valve for the Officers Quarters Compartment that is located on the fore deck of submarine. Divers can use this to send air to that space using air from the subs own high pressure air flasks or from an external air source. Photo taken June 26, 1928.

Class of 1922

John is one of 27 members of the Class of 1922 in Memorial Hall.