MARSHALL J. LYTTLE, JR., LCDR, USN

Marshall Lyttle, Jr. '42

Date of birth: March 12, 1921

Date of death: November 18, 1947

Age: 26

Lucky Bag

From the 1942 Lucky Bag:

MARSHALL J. LYTTLE

Saginaw, Michigan

Marsh, Lou, Dump

From the land of automobiles "Dump" rolled in just out of high school. Marsh took life at the Academy very leisurely, and, while lying on his bunk, was always ready to sing the praises of Michigan's great athletes and discuss track records with anyone. The afternoons that he was engaged in athletics were spent dealing out bridge hands or trying to beat old sol.

Battalion Football; Track 4, 42; 1 Stripe.

The Class of 1942 graduated on December 19, 1941, less than two weeks after the United States entered World War II. The class had previously been scheduled to graduate in February 1942.

MARSHALL J. LYTTLE

Saginaw, Michigan

Marsh, Lou, Dump

From the land of automobiles "Dump" rolled in just out of high school. Marsh took life at the Academy very leisurely, and, while lying on his bunk, was always ready to sing the praises of Michigan's great athletes and discuss track records with anyone. The afternoons that he was engaged in athletics were spent dealing out bridge hands or trying to beat old sol.

Battalion Football; Track 4, 42; 1 Stripe.

The Class of 1942 graduated on December 19, 1941, less than two weeks after the United States entered World War II. The class had previously been scheduled to graduate in February 1942.

Loss

From Newport Mercury of Newport, Rhode Island, on November 21, 1947:

Identified by the navy as the victims in the two-plane crash off Block Island Tuesday were Lieutenant Commander Minuard F. Jennings, 32, of Westerly, and Lieutenant Commander Marshall J. Lyttle, 26, of Saginaw, Mich., commander and executive officer, respectively, of the flight. The two single-seater navy planes were operating out of Charlestown Navy Air Base, the Associated Press said, when they collided during maneuvers. Searchers found only scattered wreckage of the planes. Neither pilot apparently was able to ball out, the navy said.

The date of the accident was November 18, 1947; he was executive officer of Fighter Squadron (VF) 10A.

Wartime Service

He was stationed aboard USS Isherwood (DD 520) as of March 1944.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Marshall graduated from Saginaw high school. He won an appointment to the Naval Academy.
After graduation, he was in the Pacific as an engineering officer aboard destroyers for 30 months. He won his wings in 1943 at Pensacola. At the time of his death, he was attached to a squadron of fighter aircraft based on the carrier Philippine Sea.
His brothers were Douglas and Robert. His mother Ruth died in August 1937. The family had been camping at Silver Lake when she became ill.

The Battle Creek Enquirer on November 20, 1947 reported that he was survived by Stephen J. and Lena (Marshall) Lyttle of Saginaw; his father was the Saginaw senior high school principal.

Marshall's Find A Grave page is here.