JOHN R. SPIERS, LCDR, USN

From USNA Virtual Memorial Hall
John Spiers '32

Date of birth: August 31, 1911

Date of death: October 11, 1942

Age: 31

Lucky Bag

From the 1932 Lucky Bag:

1932 Spiers LB.jpg

JOHN RANDALL SPIERS

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"Jack" "Spartacus"

We've always imagined Welshmen as very small, quick people with impossible names, but Jack is our human paradox. Six long feet of him convince us that crew is not for us. Intractable brown hair and hazel eyes complete the picture.

Jack was born and brought up in Philadelphia. Penn Charter was his stamping ground before the lure of the uniform got him. We will always feel that Jack has gotten a great deal more out of this our vale of tears than most. He believes implicitly in his ability to shape his life after his own ideals, though he is never obtrusive about it.

Athletics appeal to him in their ultimate importance to health. Music has charms to soothe him, but he seldom raves over it. His keenly inquisitive mind, coupled with his inherited conscientiousness, keeps him booming long after we have knocked off for the day.

Somewhere in the service we will meet him again and will be reminded of the good it has done us to know him. Always considerate, interested and active, we know his success is assured.

Soccer; Crew; M.P.O.

1932 Spiers LB.jpg

JOHN RANDALL SPIERS

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

"Jack" "Spartacus"

We've always imagined Welshmen as very small, quick people with impossible names, but Jack is our human paradox. Six long feet of him convince us that crew is not for us. Intractable brown hair and hazel eyes complete the picture.

Jack was born and brought up in Philadelphia. Penn Charter was his stamping ground before the lure of the uniform got him. We will always feel that Jack has gotten a great deal more out of this our vale of tears than most. He believes implicitly in his ability to shape his life after his own ideals, though he is never obtrusive about it.

Athletics appeal to him in their ultimate importance to health. Music has charms to soothe him, but he seldom raves over it. His keenly inquisitive mind, coupled with his inherited conscientiousness, keeps him booming long after we have knocked off for the day.

Somewhere in the service we will meet him again and will be reminded of the good it has done us to know him. Always considerate, interested and active, we know his success is assured.

Soccer; Crew; M.P.O.

Loss

John was lost when the plane he was piloting crashed into Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, on October 11, 1942. His radioman was also killed; they were members of Scouting Squadron (VS) 72.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

John graduated from William Penn Charter School in 1928. Favorite Expression: Can I help you Mr. Wight? Favorite Haunt: On the stage fooling with the lights. Peculiar Characteristic: The way he mixes the slides. Needs: A package of Life-Savers. Ambition: To get the pictures taken. Destiny: Deck-hand on a ferry boat. Diagnosis: Sailing, sailing over the deep, blue sea. John was member of the “Yellows” which won the winter gymnasium and the May field color contests. The latter contest included football relay, pulls and a sack race.

From The Yonkers Herald (Yonkers, New York) on September 7, 1928:

John Spiers, Brooklawn, Pa., Youth, Gains Admittance To Annapolis In Spite Of Peculiar Tooth

Philadelphia, Sept. 7 (United Press) – After passing with flying colors the competitive scholastic and psychological tests for entrance to the United State Naval Academy at Annapolis, John Spiers, 16, of Brooklawn, Pa., found himself denied admission because one of his molars was slightly out of line. He will yet, however, be acclaimed “an officer and a gentleman by the President and an Act of Congress.”

Graduating from William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, this June, John obtained his appointment by passing the examinations instituted by Congressman Wolverton of his district for picking Annapolis appointees. He passed with an average well above .90 both the scholastic and mental tests, and in his physical test he was passed as “perfect” except for the one offending molar. As a result he was denied admission.

Congressman Wolverton learned of the boy’s plight and discovered that his only hope was to obtain approval from the surgeon-general of the navy. A trip to Washington for another examination failed to change the decision.

Finally a cast was made of the boy’s teeth by one of the foremost dental surgeons in the country who made out a report that aside from the very slight derangement previously noted, the boy’s teeth were perfect.

The cast and the report were rushed to Washington to Admiral Stitt, naval surgeon-general so that he might examine the cast and read the report before Secretary of the Navy Wilbur. This was done and word has at last arrived that the tilted tooth would not be considered an insurmountable drawback and that he would be admitted to the Academy in September.

From American Battle Monuments Commission:

LIEUTENANT COMMANDER JOHN R. SPIERS was the oldest child of Mark H. and Faith R. Spiers. He was born August 31, 1911 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His early years were spent at his grandfather's house at 111 North Wayne Avenue in Radnor PA, where, in 1920 the Spiers family lived. His grandfather taught at a private school in the area, and his father was in the soap business. By 1930 the Spiers family had moved to 309 Kings Highway in Brooklawn NJ, and Mark Spiers was working as a salesman for a publishing house. After attending the Penn Charter School in Philadelphia, John Randall Spiers was appointed to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, where he graduated in 1932, finishing 169th in a class of 421 graduates.

After graduating from Annapolis, John Randall Spiers, known as Jack to family and friends, was trained as a naval aviator. He was based for a time at Coronado CA, where he met his wife, the daughter of a career Marine.

Stationed at the Naval Air Station at Quonset Point RI, Lieutenant Commander John R. Spiers was lost in a plane crash off the Atlantic coast on October 11, 1942. He was survived by his wife and a young daughter, Martha, his parents and three sisters, Faith, Marcia, and Phoebe. Mrs. Spiers returned to California, where she raised their daughter.

John was survived by his wife and a young daughter. He has a memory marker in California.

Photographs

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

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.

October 1932
Ensign, USS Chester

Others at this command:

Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg Seymour Johnson '27 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
LTjg John Collett '29 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
January 1933
Ensign, USS Chester

Others at this command:

Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg Seymour Johnson '27 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
LTjg John Collett '29 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
April 1933
Ensign, USS Chester

Others at this command:

Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg Seymour Johnson '27 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
LTjg John Collett '29 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
July 1933
Ensign, USS Chester


Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg John Collett '29 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
October 1933
Ensign, USS Chester


Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg John Collett '29 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
April 1934
Ensign, USS Chester


Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg John Collett '29 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
July 1934
Ensign, USS Chester


Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg Claud Hughes '30 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
October 1934
Ensign, USS Chester


Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg Claud Hughes '30 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
January 1935
Ensign, USS Chester


Others at or embarked at this command:
LTjg Claud Hughes '30 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
LTjg Alfred Tucker, III '31 (Scouting Plane Squadron (VS) 9S)
April 1935
Ensign, USS Tanager
October 1935
Ensign, USS Chandler
January 1936
Ensign, USS Chandler
April 1936
Ensign, USS Chandler
July 1936
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Chandler
January 1937
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Chandler
April 1937
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Chandler
July 1938
Lieutenant (j.g.), Fighting Squadron (VF) 3, USS Saratoga


Others at or embarked at USS Saratoga:
LCDR Irving Wiltsie '21 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LT John Waldron '24 (USS Saratoga)
LT Gerald Dyson '27 (USS Saratoga)
LT John Yoho '29 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg James Reilly '32 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg George Nicol '34 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 3)
ENS David Taylor, Jr. '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
ENS William Hulson '36 (Aircraft, Battle Force)
ENS Paul Riley '37 (USS Saratoga)
ENS William Mason, Jr. '37 (USS Saratoga)
ENS John Black '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Osborne Wiseman '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS John Smith '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Keene Hammond '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Vincent Sim '38 (USS Saratoga)
January 1939
Lieutenant (j.g.), Fighting Squadron (VF) 3, USS Saratoga

Others at or embarked at USS Saratoga:
LCDR Irving Wiltsie '21 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LT John Waldron '24 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 3)
LT Gerald Dyson '27 (USS Saratoga)
LT John Yoho '29 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg James Reilly '32 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg George Nicol '34 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 3)
LTjg David Taylor, Jr. '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
ENS William Hulson '36 (Aircraft, Battle Force)
ENS Paul Riley '37 (USS Saratoga)
ENS William Mason, Jr. '37 (USS Saratoga)
ENS John Black '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Osborne Wiseman '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS John Smith '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Keene Hammond '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Vincent Sim '38 (USS Saratoga)
October 1939
Lieutenant (j.g.), Fighting Squadron (VF) 3, USS Saratoga

Others at this command:

Others at or embarked at USS Saratoga:
LCDR Richard Moss '24 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LT Harrington Drake '31 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg George Nicol '34 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 3)
LTjg John Ennis '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
ENS William Mason, Jr. '37 (USS Saratoga)
ENS John Black '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS John Smith '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Keene Hammond '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Lenard Reichel '39 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Claude Goodman, Jr. '39 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Norman White '39 (USS Saratoga)
June 1940
Lieutenant, Fighting Squadron (VF) 3, USS Saratoga


Others at or embarked at USS Saratoga:
LCDR Richard Moss '24 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LT William Hank '25 (USS Saratoga)
LT William Sisko '31 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 3)
LT Harrington Drake '31 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
LTjg George Nicol '34 (Scouting Squadron (VS) 3)
LTjg John Ennis '35 (Bombing Squadron (VB) 3)
ENS Keene Hammond '38 (USS Saratoga)
ENS Norman White '39 (USS Saratoga)


Class of 1932

John is one of 53 members of the Class of 1932 on Virtual Memorial Hall.

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