RICHARD B. CAMPBELL, LT, USN

Richard Campbell '40

Date of birth: July 2, 1915

Date of death: September 21, 1943

Age: 28

Lucky Bag

From the 1940 Lucky Bag:

RICHARD BRADLEY CAMPBELL

Kansas City, Missouri

Brad

"Brad" is a typical realist. No dreams haunt his day to day existence. To him the Navy is a tough job and you'll find him plugging at it in the shadows of a "Juice Tree." "Soupy" has the proverbial stubbornness of the mules from his state. If you want an argument to go on to eternity, "Brad" will give it to you. The golf course is "Brad's" idea of a sportsman's haven, and when a young lady isn't around to distract him, he sometimes threatens par. He relaxes each week-end in the company of an attractive drag. The road may be rough for this Kansas City Kid, but he has what it takes.

Stunt Committee; Football Squad 4; 2 Stripes.

RICHARD BRADLEY CAMPBELL

Kansas City, Missouri

Brad

"Brad" is a typical realist. No dreams haunt his day to day existence. To him the Navy is a tough job and you'll find him plugging at it in the shadows of a "Juice Tree." "Soupy" has the proverbial stubbornness of the mules from his state. If you want an argument to go on to eternity, "Brad" will give it to you. The golf course is "Brad's" idea of a sportsman's haven, and when a young lady isn't around to distract him, he sometimes threatens par. He relaxes each week-end in the company of an attractive drag. The road may be rough for this Kansas City Kid, but he has what it takes.

Stunt Committee; Football Squad 4; 2 Stripes.

Loss

Brad was lost in a USN Lockheed PV-1 Ventura patrol bomber crash on the Marquesas Keys Bombing & Gunnery Range on September 21, 1943. The aircraft was assigned to VB-2 OTU-1 and was based at NAS Lake City.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Richard was known by Bradley or “Brad” in Westport High School where he participated in football, basketball and track (high jump and broad jump.) He attended Junior college and then Rockhurst College before entering the Naval Academy. His father was Ernest, a supervisor for the Met State Railway Company. Mother Bessie remarried Lee M. Egan. Sisters Gertrude, Doratha, and Helen. Brothers William and Ernest.

He is buried in Kansas.

Photographs

From the Lucky Bag
From The Kansas City Times on November 3, 1943

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.