ROBLEY W. CLARK, CAPT, USN

Robley Clark '24

Date of birth: April 23, 1902

Date of death: May 1, 1945

Age: 43

Lucky Bag

From the 1924 Lucky Bag:

ROBLEY WESTLAND CLARK

East Orange, New Jersey

"Robbie"

"WELL, are you going to bone your Nav today, or let it ride?"

"Me bone? Now I ask you, why should I bone Nav when I haven't hit a tree in it yet? You birds give me a pain with your greasing eight months out of the year. Look at me, I've only had to study two Septembers and I'm still with you."

Around the first of every month when the big Spring Handicap opens up, "Bob" is all set. All of the club members envy his good judgment but they don't profit from him.

"Bob" always has plenty of time for everything, with some to spare. He never hurried any place in his life, except the time he was in Baltimore on Second Class leave and, of that trip, he says little.

When it comes to low hurdles, "Phil" is right there. He placed in every class meet Youngster year, but never ended a race on his feet, always sliding for home. "Bob" is a true Red Mike, but give him a few magazines and his "Fats" and he is all ready for a big time. Everybody comes to see Clark when they are short of reading material, as he has all of the latest magazines out. Every night at nine o'clock you can find "Bobbie" on his bed deeply absorbed in a story of "Two-Gun Mike, the Bad Man", or "How Curly Hair Makes Girls Leave Home".

Class Track (4, 3, 2, 1); Numerals (3, 2); Last Shot (3).

ROBLEY WESTLAND CLARK

East Orange, New Jersey

"Robbie"

"WELL, are you going to bone your Nav today, or let it ride?"

"Me bone? Now I ask you, why should I bone Nav when I haven't hit a tree in it yet? You birds give me a pain with your greasing eight months out of the year. Look at me, I've only had to study two Septembers and I'm still with you."

Around the first of every month when the big Spring Handicap opens up, "Bob" is all set. All of the club members envy his good judgment but they don't profit from him.

"Bob" always has plenty of time for everything, with some to spare. He never hurried any place in his life, except the time he was in Baltimore on Second Class leave and, of that trip, he says little.

When it comes to low hurdles, "Phil" is right there. He placed in every class meet Youngster year, but never ended a race on his feet, always sliding for home. "Bob" is a true Red Mike, but give him a few magazines and his "Fats" and he is all ready for a big time. Everybody comes to see Clark when they are short of reading material, as he has all of the latest magazines out. Every night at nine o'clock you can find "Bobbie" on his bed deeply absorbed in a story of "Two-Gun Mike, the Bad Man", or "How Curly Hair Makes Girls Leave Home".

Class Track (4, 3, 2, 1); Numerals (3, 2); Last Shot (3).

Loss

Robley was lost on May 1, 1945 when USS Terror (CM 5) was struck by a kamikaze while at anchor at Kerama Retto (near Okinawa). Forty-seven other officers and men were also lost in this attack. He was serving as Operations Officer, Commander Minesweepers Pacific.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

In May 1931, Robley and his wife, the former Violet Heiby, sailed from Honolulu to San Francisco. In October 1935, they sailed from the Canal Zone to Los Angeles. In June 1947, his widow married Col. Charles Herbert Karlstad in Hawaii.
Robley was a member of the staff of Vice Admiral Alexander Sharp, commander of Minecraft in the Pacific. He was killed aboard the admiral’s flagship, U. S. S. Terror.
His father Charles was a realty broker, mother Helen. In May 1907, Robley, his mother, sister Elizabeth, and brothers Alfred and Augustus Dayton sailed from Nassau to New York City. His brother Dayton (’22) retired as a Navy captain in September, 1945.

His wife was listed as next of kin; he was also survived by his daughter. (His wife, per the April 1976 issue of Shipmate, later remarried.)

He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Career

From The Honolulu Advertiser on February 10, 1946:

… Captain Clark spent five years in submarine service, after which he was appointed as Officer in Charge of the Experimental Diving Unit in Washington, D.C. While in this position, he became a master diver. His next duty was as commanding officer of the USS Millard, a submarine salvage vessel.

He was commanding officer of USS Hopkins (DMS 13) from August 1940 until October 1941.

Robley was the navigator aboard USS Phoenix (CL 48), anchored at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. (Note: despite his grandniece's story and a short blurb in a newspaper article in 1945, he did not "save the Phoenix;" that ship was never taken under fire by the Japanese and did not get underway until several hours after the attack.)

Legion of Merit

From Hall of Valor:

(Citation Needed) - SYNOPSIS: Captain Robley Westland Clark, United States Navy, was awarded the Legion of Merit (Posthumously) for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States as Operations Officer on the staff of Commander Minesweepers Pacific from 14 October 1944 to 1 May 1945.
Service: Navy
Rank: Captain
General Orders: Bureau of Naval Personnel Information Bulletin No. 349 (April 1946)

The Honolulu Advertiser on February 10, 1946 reported that the citation read in part "Exercising initiative, perseverance and outstanding skill, Captain Clark contributed in a large measure to the successful planning of the Minecraft organization… Captain Clark upheld the highest tradition of the United States Naval Service." The paper reported the award was presented to his wife by Admiral Towers, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet.

Bronze Star

Unable to find the full citation, but Robley's Bronze Star medal is pictured twice on Wikipedia. "Medal has additional combat distinguishing device, or "V". Medal was awarded to Captain Robley. W. Clark as commander of the Mine, Net and Hydrographic group attached to a Naval Attack Force during operations for the occupation of Ulithi Atoll. The medal is engraved on the reverse, 'Captain Robley W. Clark USN Sep 2-25 1944.'" This was for his service as commander Task Unit 33.13.1, which consisted of two "light minelayers… four minesweepers, and seven motor minesweepers."

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.