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Riddell, Robert S.
Robert S. Riddel U.S. Navy WWII
Robert S. Riddel U.S. Navy WWII
  
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Date of Birth: 4/4/1911
Died On: 10/3/1989 Last Residence: 92103, San Diego, San Diego, California
Street Address: Grace Church Street
Service Number: unknown
Branch of Service: U.S. Navy-WWII


Veteran Code: USN-227


BIOGRAPHY Extended Information
 
Robert Southgate Riddell

Robert Southgate Riddell was born on April 4, 1911, in Helena, Montana, to Isabel Anderson Southgate and Guy Crosby Riddell. He had one sister, Virginia, and in Rye his family lived at 68 Elmwood Ave. A resident of Rye most of his life, Robert was graduated from Rye High School in 1929, previously he had attended Milton School.

In 1933 he was graduated from the United States Naval Academy and thereafter served for several years aboard various battleships. He then received aviation training at Pensacola, Fl.

He married Nora Lee Clampitt on June 1, 1935, in Los Angeles, California. They had four children during their marriage.

Robert served as an officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He was stationed at Pearl Harbor Hawaii at the outbreak of the war. At the time of the Japanese attack, his wife and two sons Robert Allen, five, and Alexander Crosby, one, had been living with him at Pearl Harbor where he has made his home since 1939.

His wife and two small sons soon left Pearl Harbor for San Francisco and a visit to Robert's family in Rye. Eventually, making their home with her mother, Mrs. Clampitt, in Los Angeles.

In 1943, after four years at Pearl Harbor, now Lieut. Comdr. Robert Riddell, was stationed at Stanford, FL for bomber training. He then returned to the West Coast from a special period of advanced training on the East Coast and had taken up his duties as a Air Craft Carrier squadron commander of Lockheed PV-1 Vega Benturas, the Navy's new twin engine medium bomber.



Commander Robert S. Riddell, who has been in Honolulu for four years and was at Pearl Harbor when the Japs made their sneak attack, now heads a squadron of the new, fast, hard-hitting twin-engine medium bombers In the South Pacific, familiarly known as Riddell's "Devilfish PViators."

Known in the Navy as the PV-1, it is the product of Lockheed Aircraft Corporation and is described as a tricky, sensitive, highspeed bombing and search plane that may be compared with the high-strung race horse as to the slower, more powerful dray horse such as the Liberator.

The "Devilfish PViators" are part of Admiral Halsey's great Third Fleet and are operating with him somewhere in the far Pacific. The squadron is one of many attached to Fleet Air Wing One, which is one of the several units of the "Steamrolling Third."

Formed on the west coast over a year ago, the "Devilfish PViatons," have been in the Pacific since early this year. To date they have not lost a single plane either in wartime operations or in combat. It is anticipated they may return from the combat areas early next year for a short period of recreation before reforming and returning to the combat zone.

Commander Riddell, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Guy Riddell, Highland Park, is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1933. His wife and three children, Robert A., eight: Alexander C, four, and Sandra Lee, born October 24, make their home in Los Angeles. Calif,
THE RYE CHRONICLE Friday, November 3, 1944

Robert would serve in the US Navy for over 30 years retiring in 1963. He would serve as commander at several Navy airfields as well as the executive officer on The USS Valley Forge (CVS-45).

He and his wife would live in San Diego, CA. They were a fun-loving and generous couple who enjoyed traveling, playing bridge and poker, working in the yard, family get-togethers.

Robert Southgate Riddell died on October 3, 1989, in San Diego, California, at the age of 78. His wife Nora Lee Riddell passed away at age 95, in 2009. Survived by their children Bob Riddell (Evelyn), Alex Riddell, Sandi Humpherys (Tom), and Ginger Lehmann (Bill) and 9 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren.
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