Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-08-28
NAVY MOURNSLOSS
|0F RODGERS, BURIAL
| T0BE IN ARLINGTON
Flyer, Victim of Crash at
Philadelphia, Was Hero
of Hawaii Flight.
PLANE HIT AIRPOCKET;
| FELL 100 FEET TO RIVER
Wilbur and Other High Officials
Pay Tributes-Mechanician
May Not Survive.
BY the Associated Press.

navy touay mOurned one of it's great
est latter-day heroes. Comdr. John
Rodgers Of the San Francisco Hawaii
flight.
The aviator of distinguished naval
lineage. who kept his seap;ane afioat
nine days when adrift i'm the Pacific,
plunged less than 100 feet to death
in land plane yesterday.
The plane struck an airpocket.
side slipped and dropped into the
Delaware River. a. short distance
from the navy yard field where he
was about to land.
His mechanician, Samuel Schultz
of Philadelphia, was in the Naval
Hospital today with a broken back
and physicians feared that he would
not recover.
Flew From Washington.
Most witnesses say that the plane
fell probably less than 100 feet into
feet of water.
The commander was Ell route from
Washington to attend conference
with other naval officers and TO in
spect a partly finished new type of
airplane In which he contemplated
making q 3,0OO-mile flight. He had
circled the landing field once and
was descending to make a landing
when the machine dropped, nose first,
about 100 feet from shore.
Officers. sailors and marines rush
ed to the rescue. Schultz had loosen
ed the straps that held him to his
seat and was working to release
Rodgers when help came.
The heads of the two flyers were
just above water.
Easy, boys" Rodgers said as his
rescuers tried to lift him free of the
wreckage. I'm caught somewhere"
Engine Crushes Chest.
The engine of the plane lay partly
on the commanders chest and one
leg was caught in the wreckage. The
plane had TO be taken apart to ex.
tricate him. He died two hours later.
On the operating table surgeons
found that the heavy engine had
crushed his chest. Broken ribs
punctured his vital organs.
The commander was conscious al
most to the end.
HE reminded me of some of the
men / treated at the front" said
Lieut.. Comdr. +. f. Loucey of the
Naval Medical Corps. Sometimes q
man would be thoroughly conscious
and would ask for u cigarette. Then,
before you could get it lighted for
him, he would die. That was the way
1t was with Comdr. Rodgers. lie was
game to the very end
Realizing that he was fatally in
jured. Rodgers asked that his mother,
who lives at Havre de Grace, Md, be
notified. She left for Philadelphia
Immediately. but arrived too late to
see her son alive.
Comforts Aides Wife.
This morning she gathered In her
arms the wife of the enlisted man, her
sons mechanician, on the fatal flight
from Washington, and comforted her
In the quiet corridor of the hospital
at the Philadelphia navy yard last
night the mother who lost her son
found courage to hearten the young
wife who raced from her Summer
vacation in New Jersey to the bed.
SIDE OF her husband, Samuel ].
Schultz.
Tears came to her eyes as Mrs.
Rodgers quietly patted the young
wlfe's shoulder and encouraged her as
she waited to learn the outcome of her
husbands injuries. Schultz has a
broken back and decorations of the
head and face.
Leaning on the arm of a son, Rob
ert p Rodgers. a New York architect
and followed closely by her husband,
Rear Admiral John A. Rodgers. re-
tired, and Mr.. and Mrs. Robert Meigs
OF Havre de Grace, Md. neDhew and
| niece. Mrs. Rodgers came into tho
hospltai TO arrange for the funeral.
Father PAGES Corridor.
While details of his sons death were
related by physicians, Rear Admiral
Rodgers paced the narrow hospital
! pasSageWay. Occasionally he paused
his face drawn. and then began again
! the nervous pacing, as he did q wear
ago when Comdr. Rodgers was miss
ing on the Pacific Ocean
Il thought John waS pretty safe
for he seemed a very careful flyer
1t didn't seem possible he could have
| two such close calls in so short a
| time" he said
! John used to laugh at the NAVY
| officers who said he was reaching the
maximum number of flights ever made
| by any flyer" said his cousin. Mrs
Meigs. He loved it. and said he would
! fly until he was smashed up or was
pensioned."
Yesterdays flight was to have been
, one of Schultz's last trips, as he had
filed special discharge papers after
serving eight years in the Navy. and
expected TO be released from service
this week
The SchultZes have two children. a
girl. years old, and a boy. 4.
Family Representation Ends.
With the death of Comdr. Rodgers
, the Navy finds itself for the first time
In years without member of his
family on its active roster. He was
the son of Admiral John A. Rodgers,
retired, and a descendant of Commo-
dOre John Rodgers. one of the fathers
of the Navy. 1t has been a tradition
that there az heen a John Rodgers
in the Navy ever since there w9s a
| Navy.
| The feat of Comdr. Rodgers in the
| glorious failure of an attempted nom
stop flight from San Francisco to
, Hawaii last September thrilled the
world. In command of the seaplane
PN-9 No. he was forced to descend
almost within sight of his goal be-
cause of lack of fuel. Rodgers and his
crew were adrift for nine days on the
Pacific Ocean. His bravery in keeping
his ship afioat and his four men in
good spiritf won the commendation Of
his chief And promotion to the post
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