Photo By Kerri Spero | Naval Undersea Warfare Center Division Newport Deputy Technical Director Steve...... read more read more
NEWPORT, R.I.–On the morning of Oct. 25, 1941, Alexander MacLellan Jr., a research expert at the Naval Torpedo Station in Newport, sat in the passenger seat of a plane set to perform tests on a torpedo release mechanism. Such flights had become routine for MacLellan over the course of his 25-year career, though this would be his last.
As the aircraft took off, it struck a buoy off Gould Island and capsized. While the pilot of the plane, Chief Petty Officer Robert Nichols, was able to free himself and leave the wreck uninjured, the 50-year-old MacLellan drowned.
This year marks the 85th anniversary of the fatal accident on Narragansett Bay that killed MacLellan, one of 34 employees who have worked at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport and its predecessor organizations and died in the line of duty.All of them were honored for their service to the U.S. Navy on May 21 during a somber Memorial Day ceremony at the command’s stone marker.
“The men remembered here were not on distant battlefields,” Commanding Officer Capt. Kevin Behm said. “They were local scientists, machinists, engineers, Sailors, and craftsmen. They were Americans who came to work each day in service to something larger than themselves. And in that service, they accepted risk so our Navy, and our nation, could remain strong.
“As Memorial Day approaches may we carry forward not only remembrance but purpose, honoring those we lost by remaining worthy of the mission they helped build.”
With Behm, members of the Military Detachment (MILDET) and a crowd of roughly 75 employees standing nearby, Public Affairs Specialist Carly Diette read the names of the 34 fallen men while Petty Officer 2nd Class Alexander Hughes chimed a bell twice in honor of each one.
When all of the names had been read, Behm and Deputy Technical Director Steve O’Grady placed a wreath at the foot of the memorial, which is emblazoned with the names of the deceased. Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Brehm, a musician assigned to the Navy Band Northeast, then played a rendition of “Taps,” the 24-note bugle call played at military funeral services and to signal each day's end.
“As we listened to each name and each toll of the bell, we were reminded that the mission of this command has always carried profound responsibility,” Behm said. “For 157 years, the people of this warfare center and its predecessor commands have stood at the forefront of protecting our nation beneath the sea — advancing the technologies, systems and capabilities that keep our Sailors safe and preserve peace through strength.” O’Grady said the Division Newport employees who died in the line of duty were “our neighbors, our co-workers, our shipmates and our friends.”
“They were ordinary people who answered the call to do extraordinary things,” he said. “Their stories also remind us that progress and security are never free. As we leave here today, I ask that we remember these 34 men, not only for how they died, but for how they lived and how they served to protect this nation, support one another and contribute to a mission greater than themselves.”
Three MacLellans die in Navy aviation accidents Eight years before MacLellan’s untimely death, his younger brother, Lt. Cmdr. Harold MacLellan, was an officer in the Navy. On April 4, 1933, Harold was riding in the helium-filled airship USS Akron (ZRS 4) when it crashed during a storm off the coast of New Jersey, killing him and 72 other passengers. Three men survived.
The younger MacLellan brother was a 1917 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy before joining the crew of the Akron as a navigation and gunnery officer. The incident marked the deadliest airship crash in the history of the Navy, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt calling it a “national disaster.”
When Alexander MacLellan’s plane crashed in October 1941, his son, Alexander MacLellan III, was an employee at the Naval Torpedo Station. However, as the U.S. entered World War II, the 21-year-old enlisted in the Navy as an aviation cadet. After completing preliminary flight training, he was assigned to basic and advanced training at Naval Air Station Lee Field in Green Cove Springs, Florida.
On Oct. 15, 1942, nearly a year to the day of his father’s death in an aviation crash, MacLellan was killed when two trainer planes collided near the St. Augustine Inlet. The pilot of the other aircraft was able to steer it back to the base despite a damaged wing.
NUWC Newport is the oldest warfare center in the country, tracing its heritage to the Naval Torpedo Station established on Goat Island in Newport Harbor in 1869.Commanded by Capt. Kevin Behm, NUWC Newport maintains major detachments in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Andros Island in the Bahamas, as well as test facilities at Seneca Lake and Fisher's Island, New York, Leesburg, Florida, and Dodge Pond, Connecticut.
| Date Taken: | 05.22.2026 |
| Date Posted: | 05.22.2026 11:14 |
| Story ID: | 566004 |
| Location: | NEWPORT, RHODE ISLAND, US |
| Web Views: | 15 |
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