ukelele

AL_005C_024

from SDASM Archives

• TVL1970 said:

  A nice photo of C.W. Allen (whose photos from which this SDASM album was created) posed for a photo in Honolulu, Hawaii, in front of a backdrop (or similar) that thousands of soldiers, sailors, aviators, and Marines must have had their photos taken with between the World Wars and during WWII. Thanks to a type written caption on this photo (below) in the SDASM collection, we know his first name was Clarence. A search of "Clarence W. Allen" and "Radioman" in Google reveals his tragic fate: HOOSIER NAVAL AIRMAN KILLED - Lieut. Ralph Smith Victim of Hawaiian Crash, Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 May 1941, Page 6

  WASHINGTON, May 24. - Deaths of two Indiana born officers, one a naval flier who crashed and was killed and the other a retired General, were reported here today. The Navy Department reported that Lieut. Ralph [Dempcy] Smith, U.S.N., who was born at Princeton, Oct. 11, 1905, was killed when the plane he was piloting crashed in the water in the Hawaiian area last Wednesday. Chief Radioman Clarence W. Allen, U.S.N., who was with the Hoosier flier, also was killed, the Navy reported. . . .

  A search of Find-A-Grave using "Clarence W. Allen" and a year of passing of "1941", reveals his middle name was Widner, his date of death was May 21, 1941, and he left behind a grieving widow and 19 year-old daughter (Dorothy May Allen) in San Diego. www.findagrave.com/memorial/29083983/clarence-widner-allen

  Published in the Athens, Texas Review May 29, 1941: Clarence Widner Allen of the Payne Springs community, Henderson county, Texas, chief radioman of the Navy, stationed at Hawaii, was killed in a plane crash in the Hawaiian area, the Navy Department announced. Allen is the son of C.E. (Ellis) Allen, well known and highly respected farmer of the Payne Springs community. He has been notified by the Navy Department of his son's death. The plane, piloted by Lieut. Dempsey Smith, United States Navy, who also was killed in the crash, was a part of Scouting Squadron Six, attached to the USS Enterprise. Both met instant death. Radioman Allen had served in the Navy since August 29, 1919, when he enlisted at New Orleans. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Nellie May Allen, San Diego, California and his father at Mabank.

  Apparently, Smith and Allen, as part of Scouting Squadron 6 (VS-6), perished in what would have been a very new Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless (BuNo 4519; c/n 752), operating from USS Enterprise (CV-6) off the coast of Hawaii. As per the Find-A-Grave entry for Smith, (LINK):

  On May 21, 1941, LCDR Smith led his pilots on a training mission over Oahu's Marine Corps airfield at Ewa. During a training dive to drop a smoke bomb, Smith, for unknown reasons, failed to pull out of his dive and crashed.

  This Navy Press Release, dated May 22, 1941, announcing the deaths of Smith and Allen, provides us with Clarence W. Allen's birthdate, September 30, 1899. (LINK)

  "Allen was born in Hall County, Alabama on September 30, 1899. He fist enlisted in the U.S. Navy on August 29, 1919 in New Orleans, Louisiana, and has had continuous service in the Navy since that date."