This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Sheila Rae Myers, HM3
to remember
Edel, William Wilcox, CAPT.
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Baltimore, MD
Last Address El Cajon, CA
Date of Passing Sep 16, 1996
Location of Interment Westminister Cemetery - Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Wall/Plot Coordinates F 365 2
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Patriot-News, The (Harrisburg, PA) - Saturday, September 28, 1996
William Wilcox Edel, 102, a former president of Dickinson College, died Sept. 16 at his home in El Cajon, Calif.
The Methodist minister and Dickinson College graduate was a Navy chaplain during both World Wars. He served as the college's president from 1946 to 1959.
He designed a three-way altar used as a liturgical backdrop for religious services and the Mariner's Cross, from which the present-day Navy Chaplain Corps emblem was adapted. He wrote an autobiography, "My Hundred Years," which earned a San Diego Book Award.
Other Comments:
Navy Commendation Ribbon
The Commander in Chief, United States Pacific Fleet, takes pleasure in commending Captian William W Edel, Chaplains Corp, United States Navy for service as set forth in the following citation:
For meritorious and effiecient performance of duty as Force Chaplain on the Staff of the Commander South Pacific Area and Force from 19 January to 27 September 1945. During this period Captain Edel displayed outstanding ability and worked tirelessly in ministering to the spiritual needs of the personnel throughout the area, and in the redeployment of chaplains to forward combat areas. Through his initiative and constant attention to the welfare of the officers and men, he aided materially in maintaining the excellent morale of the forces in the South Pacific. His exemplary leadership was in keeping with the highest traditions of the Uniited States Naval Service.
Commendation Ribbon authorized.
C W Nimitz
Fleet Admiral, U S Navy
Letter of Commendation
The Secretary of the Navy takes pleasure in commending Captain William w Edel, Chaplains Corps, United States Navy for service as set forth in the following citation:
For meritorious service as a chaplain in a career spanning most of the time of our nation's participation in two world wars from June 1917 to October 1946. Captain Edel made distinctive contributions that enhanced the work of the Chaplains Corps. He designed the Mariner's Cross which consists of a mariner's compass surcharged with a golden cross, an emblem which was used since 1940 in many chaples and became incorporated into the Chaplain Corps emblem. Captain Edel devised the first three-way altar, a unique arrangement whereby three separate altars mounted a revolving vertical axis permitted more efficient multiple use chapels and was largely responsible for the construction of the chapels at Naval Station, Norfolk, Virginia, and the Cathedral of the Air at Lakehurst, New Jersey. He displayed exceptional artistic ability in the designing of promotional and worship materials. Dedicated to an ecumenical ministry, Captain Edel, on World Communion Day in 1944, officiated at a service with over 7,500 persons in attendance and which involved thrity-eight clergy of many denominations, both military and civilian. From 1924 to 1944, he served voluntarily as the Chaplain Corps Historian, during which time his articles appeared in several religious and secular publications, including the Naval Institute Proceedings, and his texts were used at the Naval Chaplains School. Captain Edel's distinctive accomplishments, compassionate demeanor, and unfaltering devotion to duty reflected credit upon himself and were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
John L Sullivan
Secretary of the Navy
The information contained in this profile was compiled from various internet sources.
United States Naval Station Tutuila was a naval station in Pago Pago Harbor on the island of Tutuila, part of American Samoa, built in 1899 and in operation until 1951. During the United States Navy rule of American Samoa, from 1900 to 1951, it was customary for the commandant of the station to also serve as Military Governor of the territory. Benjamin Franklin Tilley was the first commandant and the first officer responsible for the naval station's construction.
Located in the South Pacific, midway between Hawaii and New Zealand, the site was chosen in 1872 by Commander Richard Worsam Meade, who negotiated facilities for a coaling station for the United States Navy from the Samoan high chief Mauga Manuma.
Initially used by Pacific and Asiatic Squadrons, by 1940 Tutuila was a minor naval station. However, with the looming threat of a Pacific War, plans were drawn up for the development of its capabilities. In November 1940 expansion of the naval station began. After the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 naval activity at Tutuila increased. Ship arrivals jumped from three in December 1941 to 56 in December 1942. Shipping activity was intensive throughout 1943. In March 1943, 121 vessels passed through Pago Pago harbor. However, as the war moved north and west, Tutuila became a strategic backwater. Shipping arrivals declined after February 1944, from fifty per month to less than twenty.
On January 11, 1942, a Japanese submarine surfaced off the coast of Tutuila and fired fifteen shells from its deck gun at the Naval Station in about ten minutes. Most landed harmlessly in the bay, but Commander Edwin Robinson was wounded in the knee by shrapnel and a member of the Fita Fita Guard (Samoan Marine Reserve) received minor injuries. Ironically, the only building damaged by the submarine's shell fire was a store owned by a Japanese expatriate, Frank Shimasaki. The fire was not returned in the only Japanese attack on Samoa during World War II.
Post-war Tutuila's military importance continued to decline, and in 1951, control of American Samoa was transferred from the Navy to the Department of the Interior. Naval Station Tutuila was closed, and the last scheduled naval transport, the General R. L. Howze, sailed on 25 June 1951.[3] The harbor has since returned to commercial use.
Sixteen buildings in the former Naval Station are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, one of which- Government House- is a National Historic Landmark.
