JAMES A. LOGAN, COMO, USN
James Logan '10
Lucky Bag
From the 1910 Lucky Bag:
James Alexander Logan
Charleston, South Carolina
A quiet, soft-spoken brunette,
The Navy life bothers him yet,
Thinks boning a crime.
And spends all his time
Perusing the Charleston Gazette.
A HOT-HEADED youth from South Carolina, who usually has most decided opinions of his own on all subjects and no hesitancy about expressing them. At intervals he bones, but as soon as he gets anything which can by courtesy be called a margin—away go his books, and he sits back and discusses agriculture with Mary, until his margin has all melted away again. Pop Brown saw him work out a problem in Trig, one day and said to him, "Mr. Logan, you are very promising," and it is the general opinion that he has never been the same since.
The same dislike for work has kept him out of the realm of athletics, but has not extended to his professional labors and his efforts for the common weal. For, as one of the secret "Special Duty Squad," many were the hours that Logan sacrificed to the cause of gum-shoe and dark-lantern detective work, in spite of the fact that those hours of arduous and delicate endeavor frequently coincided with those that the Discipline Department had assigned for drill purposes.
Very quiet and unassuming, he is a hard man to know, but a through and through good fellow when you do win his friendship.
Class Baseball (2). Buzzard (a, b)
James Alexander Logan
Charleston, South Carolina
A quiet, soft-spoken brunette,
The Navy life bothers him yet,
Thinks boning a crime.
And spends all his time
Perusing the Charleston Gazette.
A HOT-HEADED youth from South Carolina, who usually has most decided opinions of his own on all subjects and no hesitancy about expressing them. At intervals he bones, but as soon as he gets anything which can by courtesy be called a margin—away go his books, and he sits back and discusses agriculture with Mary, until his margin has all melted away again. Pop Brown saw him work out a problem in Trig, one day and said to him, "Mr. Logan, you are very promising," and it is the general opinion that he has never been the same since.
The same dislike for work has kept him out of the realm of athletics, but has not extended to his professional labors and his efforts for the common weal. For, as one of the secret "Special Duty Squad," many were the hours that Logan sacrificed to the cause of gum-shoe and dark-lantern detective work, in spite of the fact that those hours of arduous and delicate endeavor frequently coincided with those that the Discipline Department had assigned for drill purposes.
Very quiet and unassuming, he is a hard man to know, but a through and through good fellow when you do win his friendship.
Class Baseball (2). Buzzard (a, b)
Loss
James was lost on September 4, 1943 when the aircraft he was aboard crashed in Northern Ireland.
Other Information
From Find A Grave:
Commodore Logan was born in Charleston on 6 January 1889 as a member of a well-known Charleston family. Alex, as he was known, became a cadet at the Citadel in Charleston in 1905. After two semesters there, he received an appointment to the Naval Academy in 1906, following in the footsteps of his brother, George Christian Logan 1908. While at the Academy, Alex was a member of the secret Special Duty Squad, specializing in matching wits with the Discipline (Executive) Department. Following graduation, he served as a passed midshipman aboard West Virginia, receiving his commission as ensign in 1912.
Killed when Cessna UC-78 Bobcat utility plane made its final flight, crashed into the mountains of Northern Ireland.
After the bodies were recovered, a funeral service with full military honors was held on 8 September 1943 and was attended by senior governmental officials from Northern Ireland, Britain, Canada and the U.S. The remains of all three were transferred to the Brookwood Cemetery in Surrey, near London, where they were laid to rest together after a brief service on 10 September 1943. After the war, Commodore Logan’s remains were returned to the U.S. for reburial in his family’s plot in the Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, SC.
From Flickr:
Captain James A. Logan, from the United States Navy … was appointed commander of the USNOB at Londonderry on 15 March 1943, and in addition to his duties as commandant of the base, oversaw all US Navy activity within Northern Ireland.
Sadly Logan's position as Commandant was to be tragically cut. On 4 September 1943 he left the base to attend a conference in London with the Commander of US Naval Forces in Europe. Arriving at RNAS Eglinton he boarded a Cessna UC-78 Bobcat (serial 42-58314) which was piloted by Captain Loren Lee Miles of the USAAF. On the flight, Logan was also joined by Mr David Grimes, the Vice President in charge of engineering at the Philco Radio Company, who was involved in radar development work. The aircraft departed Eglinton at approximately 14:35 however after its failure to arrive in London an investigation into its disappearance was started some four hours after its expected arrival time.
The crash site was discovered the following day at about 18:00 with all three men killed. The US Army were first notified and attended the scene before contacting the now acting navy commandant, Executive officer Commander John E Williams, who proceeded immediately to the crash site. The bodies were subsequently recovered and moved to the US Naval hospital at Creevagh, with the exception of the pilot, whose body was claimed by the US Army authorities.
A funeral service for Commodore Logan was held at Springtown Camp on 8 September, officiated by the Reverend Henry J. Cluver and assisted by Lt Commander F.A Burke (ChC) USN. Heads of departments acted as pall bearers and the service concluded with Lt Commander Thomas J Greene accompanying the remains to Brookwood Cemetery in England. Captain H.L Thompson assumed command as acting commandant of the base.
A small plaque was placed near the crash site by the Logan family on the 60th anniversary of the event on 4th September 2003.
From researcher Kathy Franz:
In 1914, James was stationed on USS Cheyenne in Los Angeles. She was ordered that spring to the coast of Mexico and brought back 81 refugees from the port of Ensanada.
James married Rae Ruth Heppe on June 10, 1914, in St. Augustine’s Episcopal church in Santa Monica, California. She was described as a pretty society girl of Venice, California. Her sisters Mary and Elizabeth were her bridesmaids. James’ crewmates gave them an old Colonial silver service. The couple spent a month traveling to see relatives in Charleston, South Carolina; her brother Conrad in Chatsworth, Illinois; and her sisters in Tulsa and Chicago before heading to Seattle on July 16 to join the Cheyenne. Their son James was born September 2,1924.
In May 1927 Ruth and son James sailed from Le Havre to New York City. In May 1934 James and Ruth sailed from Cristobal, Canal Zone, to New York City.
James was in command of the post-graduate school at the Naval Academy in 1934-1937 and 1940-1941. Under his supervision the school was enlarged, and he was commended for his work.
He became a member of Admiral Harold R. Stark’s (’03) staff in Great Britain in December 1942, and early in March 1943, was assigned to command the Londonderry base. Eleven days before his death, he was promoted to commodore.
James was reburied in Magnolia Cemetery on July, 18, 1948. Among the honorary pallbearers were Rear Admiral George B. Ashe (‘11), Rear Admiral R. Bentham Simons (‘11), Commodore B. V. McCandlish (‘09), Captain J. S. Abbott (‘03), and Commander Henry H. Porter (’09).
James' father Roswell was a telegraph editor for the News and Courier.
There are two pictures of James as commanding officer of the Naval Operating Base, here and here.
He was survived by his wife and son; James is buried in South Carolina.
Photographs
From the Citadel's war deaths book.
From The Index Journal on April 7, 1943
Career
James was commanding officer of USS Chase (DD 323) from June 1926 to April 1929.
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 1912
January 1914
January 1916
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May 1923
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September 1923
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July 1928
October 1928
January 1929
April 1929
July 1929
October 1929
January 1930
April 1930
October 1930
1LT David Claude '24 (Marine Barracks, Naval Academy)
January 1931
April 1931
July 1931
LT Joseph Severyns, Jr. '20
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
October 1931
January 1932
April 1932
LCDR Lyman Swenson '16
LT Samuel Arthur '20
LT Robert Smith '20
LT Paul Slawson '20
LTjg William Hobby, Jr. '23
LT John Welch '23
LT Louis Drexler, Jr. '23
October 1932
January 1933
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October 1934
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April 1935
October 1935
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July 1936
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September 1937
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July 1938
January 1939
October 1939
June 1940
November 1940
April 1941
James is one of 15 members of the Class of 1910 on Virtual Memorial Hall.
The "category" links below lead to lists of related Honorees; use them to explore further the service and sacrifice of alumni in Memorial Hall.
