NATHAN B. CHASE, LCDR, USN

Nathan Chase '12

Date of birth: September 3, 1889

Date of death: June 23, 1925

Age: 35

Lucky Bag

From the 1912 Lucky Bag:

Nathan Brown Chase

Washington, D.C.

"Nathan" "Chevy"

LOOK out for quiet fellows like this one. You never can tell when they're going to heave up like an earthquake and startle the world. So far Chase's rumblings haven't been very distinctly heard, but that is because nobody takes the trouble to listen.

This is the most unassuming mortal that ever walked the earth—why, a fly wouldn't even bother to get out of his way. To see Chase under way is to have visions of the Squeedunk River ferryboat—you couldn't tell one end from the other, or see whether it was going or coming. Just the same, Senor Chase gets there, with his perambulating gait—you never saw him in a bad way with his studies, or burning the midnight tallow for an exam? Not much.

He keeps, with Beck Sanborn, the largest and most varied assortment of magazines in the First Battalion, and he finds time to read them all.

Most noticeable trait of Chase's is his wonderful sense of justice; a midshipman who can look on both sides of the fence at once isn't met every day.

Makes the "big libs" in his same noiseless fashion. You wouldn't call buying books in Queenstown very exciting?

"Say, Georgie!"

Nathan Brown Chase

Washington, D.C.

"Nathan" "Chevy"

LOOK out for quiet fellows like this one. You never can tell when they're going to heave up like an earthquake and startle the world. So far Chase's rumblings haven't been very distinctly heard, but that is because nobody takes the trouble to listen.

This is the most unassuming mortal that ever walked the earth—why, a fly wouldn't even bother to get out of his way. To see Chase under way is to have visions of the Squeedunk River ferryboat—you couldn't tell one end from the other, or see whether it was going or coming. Just the same, Senor Chase gets there, with his perambulating gait—you never saw him in a bad way with his studies, or burning the midnight tallow for an exam? Not much.

He keeps, with Beck Sanborn, the largest and most varied assortment of magazines in the First Battalion, and he finds time to read them all.

Most noticeable trait of Chase's is his wonderful sense of justice; a midshipman who can look on both sides of the fence at once isn't met every day.

Makes the "big libs" in his same noiseless fashion. You wouldn't call buying books in Queenstown very exciting?

"Say, Georgie!"

Loss

Nathan was lost on June 23, 1925 when his aircraft collided with another near Hawaii.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Nathan graduated from Western High School in 1908. He was appointed to the Naval Academy by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in March 1908.
In 1913, Nathan was at Great Lakes, Illinois, and in December, he transferred to the Georgia.
He married Frances Beard in Pensacola on March, 20, 1917.
In April 1918, Nathan was one of five pilots to make a flight from Pensacola to New Orleans and back. The planes were N-9 type navy hydroairplanes which reached a speed of 150 miles per hour. The first stop was Fort Morgan, then Gulfport, with final landing on a platform in Lake Pontchartrain.
In January 1919, the Northern Pacific, a U. S. transport, grounded on a sand bar off Fire Island. The ship had 2480 soldiers with 1700 sick or wounded. Nathan was in command of the naval air station at Bay Shore. It became a huge emergency hospital with medical and food supplies rushed from New York by the Red Cross. Medical officers, nurses and orderlies were brought in from Hoboken. Nathan flew over the transport in the evening and hovered around the ship for 45 minutes. All was quiet. The men were later evacuated to the naval station.
After Nathan’s death, brief funeral services were held at Union Church in Honolulu on June 26. Then his wife and children accompanied his body back to Los Angeles on the Chateau Thierry.
Nathan came from a family of many Naval Academy graduates. His father Volney was Class of 1885, and his brother Henry Sanders Chase was Class of 1879. Their brother Jehu was Class of 1890, and his sons were Harry Taylor Chase, Class of 1923, and Jay Valentine Chase, Class of 1933. Nathan’s brother Volney graduated with the Class of 1922, but he resigned and joined the Naval Reserve. Nathan’s brothers-in-law were also graduates of the Naval Academy: Francis/Frank Beard, Class of 1920 and Jefferson/Jeff Beard, Class of 1921.
On July 26, 1986, Nathan was honored at the Chase Field Naval Air Station which was named for him. His son Nathan, Jr., and his wife Joyce were present at the ceremony. Nathan, Jr., was a graduate of West Point and was an aviator like his father. He resigned after 13 years of military service and joined Lockheed Corporation in 1955. He worked on the Polaris missile program and was on board USS George Washington for the first successful launch of a ballistic missile from a submerged submarine.

From Los Angeles Times, June 24, 1925 (via researcher Kathy Franz):

Nathan and Lieutenants T. L. Lee and Gail Morgan were engaged in simulated battle practice. Completing a cross over of Lee’s airplane, Nathan apparently misjudged the distance and landed on top of the wing of Lee’s machine, the propeller of which ripped the tail off Nathan’s plane. Nathan was thrown from the plane and landed 500 feet beyond her. The other planes landed safely.
Nathan’s wife and children were on their way to Honolulu at the time on the steamship City of Los Angeles. He was also survived by his mother, Mrs. Volney O. Chase; two sisters, Mrs. Elizabeth C. Thompson and Mrs. Suzanne C. Smith; a brother Volney O. Chase; and his uncle Rear-Admiral John V. Chase of the Bremerton Navy yard.
Nathan had spent more than 1000 hours aloft since he won his wings at the Pensacola naval station several years ago. He was placed in command of VF-2 squadron two years ago and accompanied the squadron to Honolulu when it left on the Langley for the Hawaiian maneuvers. Three years ago he had charge of a naval aircraft expedition that mapped the coastline of the Aleutian Islands and the Alaska coast from Sitka south.

He was naval aviator #37.

He was survived by his wife, Frances, and children Suzanne and Nathan Jr. Suzanne married a 1940 Naval Academy graduate. Nathan is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Photographs

From the 1912 Lucky Bag
From The Corpus Christi Caller on May 23, 1943

Namesake

Naval Air Station Chase Field was named for Nathan.

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.