JOSEPH H. SEVERYNS, JR., LT, USN
Joseph Severyns, Jr. '20
Lucky Bag
From the 1920 Lucky Bag:
Loss
Joseph was lost when the airship USS Akron (ZRS 4) crashed off the coast of New Jersey on April 4, 1933.
From Find A Grave:
Joseph Hubert Severyns was the son of Joseph Hubert Severyns and Mary Francois DeWitte. On November 25, 1921 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Joseph married Marjorie Kohlman.
LT Severyns was a guest aboard the USS Akron when it went down over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of New Jersey. His body was lost at sea.
He was designated naval aviator #3650 in 1930.
Akron's executive officer, LCDR Herbert V. Wiley '15, one of only three survivors, was filmed shortly after the crash:
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.
January 1920
Ensign, USS Virginia
January 1921
Ensign, USS Breck
January 1922
Ensign, USS Lardner
July 1924
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Preble
September 1924
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Truxtun
November 1924
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Truxtun
January 1925
Lieutenant (j.g.), USS Truxtun
March 1925
Lieutenant (j.g.), executive officer, USS Truxtun
May 1925
Lieutenant (j.g.), executive officer, USS Truxtun
July 1925
Lieutenant (j.g.), tempo, Receiving Ship, San Francisco
Others at this command:
October 1925
Lieutenant, Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Washington
January 1926
Lieutenant, Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Washington
October 1926
Lieutenant, Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Washington
January 1927
Lieutenant, Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Washington
April 1927
Lieutenant, Navy Yard, Puget Sound, Washington
April 1929
Lieutenant, executive officer, USS Chase
July 1929
Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey
Others at this command:
October 1929
Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey
Others at this command:
January 1930
Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey
Others at this command:
April 1930
Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey
Others at this command:
October 1930
Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Academy
Others at this command:
LCDR Robert English '11
LCDR Warner Portz '15
LCDR Cassin Young '16
LT John Jones '21
Others at or embarked at this command:
1LT David Claude '24 (Marine Barracks, Naval Academy)
January 1931
Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Academy
Others at this command:
Others at or embarked at this command:
April 1931
Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Academy
Others at this command:
Others at or embarked at this command:
July 1931
Lieutenant, under instruction, Naval Academy
Others at this command:
LCDR Robert English '11
LT Samuel Arthur '20
LT Robert Smith '20
LT Paul Slawson '20
LT John Jones '21
LT John French '22
LTjg William Hobby, Jr. '23
Others at or embarked at this command:
October 1931
Lieutenant, under instruction, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Others at this command:
January 1932
Lieutenant, under instruction, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Others at this command:
April 1932
Lieutenant, under instruction, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Others at this command:
October 1932
Lieutenant, Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey
Others at this command:
January 1933
Lieutenant, Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey
Others at this command:
Others at or embarked at this command:
April 1933
Lieutenant, Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey
Others at this command:
Others at or embarked at this command:
Class of 1920
Joseph is one of 28 members of the Class of 1920 on Virtual Memorial Hall.