The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-05-31
Son Of Famed Russian Officer Wears U. s. Navy Colors
Hopes Annapolis Graduation Parade Will Lead To Career As Distinguished As His Dads
BY EVELYN HART

BY EVELYN HART
 NEA Service Special Correspondent
 Annapolis, Md, May 31-Another interlude in a drama which began in Russia 9 years ago will be cli- maxed when Vadym Utgoff, only en- rolled midshipman of Russian birth, marches in graduation exercises at the United States Naval Academy.
 Attending the ceremonies will be Baroness Leda Wrangell, the boys mother. Once she was the wife of the late Lieut-Co Victor Utgon of the Imperial Russian army.
 Midshipman Vadym was born in Sebastopol, Crimea, in the midst of fury and turmoil surrounding the Russian revolution of 1917. His birth was marked by an incident which, but for the bravery of his father, might have ended in sudden death for an entire family.
 ESCAPED DEATH
 BEFORE BIRTH
 Madame Utgoff was shooting at a target in the yard of the family home in Sebastopol, practicing with the small pistol given her by her husband for protection. Two Red soldiers, passing on the road nearby. heard the shots and threatened to kill her for firing the gun.
 Commander Utgoff, joined the group and laughingly explained to the excited soldiers that his wife was using toy pistol, convincing them by pointing to the St. Georges Cross on his breast and inviting them to shoot the gun at him if they doubted his word. The soldiers, grinning sheepishly, accepted the in cident as a joke and returned to the road.
 Madame Utgoff collapsed, drop ping the loaded pistol at her hus- bands feet. Vadym was born the following day.
 prompted Commander Utgoff to per- form daring feats which resulted in his being the first officer to receive the St. Georges Cross during the World War. Prior to the outbreak of the revolution and Russia's with drawal from the war, Utgoff was awarded the Legion of Honor and several other decorations for bravery in action.
 HIS FATHER
 HIS IDEAL
 His spectacular career has been the major factor in determining the pattern of his sons life. Vadym plans to continue his fathers work from the point of its Interruption by death in 1930.
 Now ready to enter active service for his adopted country, he recalls the day that his father determined to return to the vocation which had frat intrigued him. After coming to tho United States, Commander Ut- goE, impelled by the necessity of supporting his family, had turned to things other than aviation.
 For a time, he drove a taxi in New York city, but after a series of failures, he was persuaded that success was attainable only in the field for which he had been trained and in which he had revealed un- usual brilliance. He became mem Der of the Coast Guard service, aviation division, at Gloucester, Mass.
 The fate which protected the Russian ace in numerous crashes during the war turned her back in October, l930, when his Coast Guard plane cracked up outside Boston. He is buried in Arlington cemetery with Americas national heroes.
 The young midshipman also re- calls the exciting days at the Ut- golf home on Long Island when Igor Sikorsky and group of en thusias- tic young Russians were building the first Sikorsky airplane in the Utgoff back yard.
 The boys world collapsed with the crack-up of his fathers ship but it has been reconstructed gradually through his faith in the idea of carrying on his fathers ideals of service and spectacular courage. MOTHER IS
 ADMIRAL'S DAUGHTER
 Vadym's mother was the daughter of an admiral of the Imperial Rus sian navy. The death of her husband left her alone in an unfamiliar country, with the full responsibility of supporting four children.
 Despite her background of lux ury and leisure, she did not hesi- tate to accept work in a New York department store and later she served as hostess in Russian res- taurant.
 Her lectures on various phases of Russian culture, delivered to select