JOHN F. O'MALLEY, LT, USN
John O'Malley '41
Lucky Bag
From the 1941 Lucky Bag:
JOHN FENDALL O'MALLEY
Long Beach, California
Smooth is the word for John. Even without his patent leather shoes and his white silk gloves he could easily be classified as the smoothest dancer on the floor at any hop—and he's always there. This meticulous attention to each detail is not reserved solely for dress occasions, either, for Jeff's shoe shines have been the envy of every man in ranks with him for four years.
The nickname "Horizontal," which he earned by means of his outstanding fondness for bunk drill, might lead one to believe the person described is lazy, if it were not for his accomplishments—but the Navy varsity on the tennis courts disprove that assumption immediately. Tenacity is the keynote of John's attitude toward both tennis and academics. He takes himself seriously in both fields and gets results.
Pensacola has always been Jeff's dream and goal. His tenacity of purpose should carry him on to a realization of that dream when he finds himself cavorting around in the clouds in one of the Navy's latest fighters.
Tennis 4, 3, 2, 1, N; Trident 3.
The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.
JOHN FENDALL O'MALLEY
Long Beach, California
Smooth is the word for John. Even without his patent leather shoes and his white silk gloves he could easily be classified as the smoothest dancer on the floor at any hop—and he's always there. This meticulous attention to each detail is not reserved solely for dress occasions, either, for Jeff's shoe shines have been the envy of every man in ranks with him for four years.
The nickname "Horizontal," which he earned by means of his outstanding fondness for bunk drill, might lead one to believe the person described is lazy, if it were not for his accomplishments—but the Navy varsity on the tennis courts disprove that assumption immediately. Tenacity is the keynote of John's attitude toward both tennis and academics. He takes himself seriously in both fields and gets results.
Pensacola has always been Jeff's dream and goal. His tenacity of purpose should carry him on to a realization of that dream when he finds himself cavorting around in the clouds in one of the Navy's latest fighters.
Tennis 4, 3, 2, 1, N; Trident 3.
The Class of 1941 was the first of the wartime-accelerated classes, graduating in February 1941.
Loss
John was lost when the aircraft he was piloting crashed near Jacksonville, FL, on September 27, 1943. He was flying with Fighting Squadron Operational Training Unit (VF OTU) 3 at the time.
He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
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.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
