LESTER H. KERN, LCDR, USNR
Lester Kern '23
Lucky Bag
From the 1923 Lucky Bag:
Loss
Lester was lost on November 24, 1943 when USS Liscome Bay (CVE 56) was torpedoed and sunk by a Japanese submarine.
He survived the sinking and was rescued by USS Morris (DD 417), but died shortly afterwards and was buried at sea.
Lester was a LCDR in the Navy Reserve, DVE-V(S), which was applied to "Officers of the Volunteer Reserve to the line for special service in deck and engineering duties." It's not clear what his duty aboard Liscome Bay was.
His wife was listed as next of kin; the following year she was residing in Baltimore.
Related Articles
Henry Mullinnix '16, Irving Wiltsie '21, Finley Hall '29, Charles Ostrom '30, and George Williams '40 were also lost in Liscome Bay.
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.
September 1924
Ensign, USS Parrott
November 1924
Ensign, USS Parrott
January 1925
Ensign, under instruction, Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island
Others at this command:
March 1925
Ensign, under instruction, Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island
Others at this command:
May 1925
Ensign, under instruction, Naval Torpedo Station, Newport, Rhode Island
Others at this command:
January 1927
Lieutenant, treatment, Naval Hospital, New York
Class of 1923
Lester is one of 25 members of the Class of 1923 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
