Lt. Austin Spencer – A Basking Ridge MIA Story

This story came about after the Mr. Local History Project researchers prepared research on Bernards Township developments in the 20th century. Many residents started asking about the Spencer Road development, one of the first in the township to provide lower-income homes for veterans returning from WW2. Spencer Road was one of the township’s first large-scale developments with a few of the area’s developers.

Coincidentally, Mr. Local History’s founder and his family moved to Basking Ridge in 2004, and guess where they chose to live? YES, Spencer Road.

Austin Pendleton Spencer – US Navy

Austin Pendleton Spencer was born in Colchester, Connecticut, on January 17, 1918. He was raised as the eldest of four siblings, Emily, Alice, and Trueman Jr., in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and grew up on West Oak Street, across from today’s Oak Street Elementary School.

Austin attended Bernards High School from 1931 to 1935, as there was no high school in Basking Ridge, where he lived. He graduated from Bernards High School in 1935.

From 1936 to 1940, Spencer attended Connecticut State College, graduating from the University of Connecticut in May 1940. In 1940, the University of Connecticut (UConn) located in Storrs, Connecticut. Connecticut State College officially became the University of Connecticut on July 1, 1939, following the approval of a bill by the Connecticut General Assembly on May 26, 1939. This name change reflected the institution’s growth and expanded academic offerings.

Wedding Vows

On August 2, 1942, in Wickford, Rhode Island, Austin would marry Agnes Gerard Kennedy, a school teacher from St. John, Newfoundland, Canada. Shortly after Spencer graduated, Spencer enlisted in the United States Navy.

WWII Navy Enlistment

Austin began his pilot training in Jacksonville, Florida, where he earned his call sign “Spike” Spencer. After achieving his pre-war Aviation Cadet (AVCAD) program credentials, Spencer became a naval aviator. Spencer held the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade and the service number 0099935, piloting a Lockheed PV-1 bomber search missions in the North Atlantic.

While piloting a Lockheed PV-1 bomber on one of his many submarine search missions in the North Atlantic, Spencer never returned and was eventually declared missing in action on May 1, 1943. A cenotaph memorial for Spencer was dedicated at the Linwood Cemetery in Colchester, Connecticut, commemorating his service and sacrifice. A cenotaph is a monument, or empty tomb, erected to honor a person or group of people whose remains are unrecoverable.

Tragedy Has a Silver Lining

One thing people don’t know about Austin is that after he was declared officially MIA on May 1, 1943, his wife Agnes was pregnant. On February 4, 1944, Austin’s wife, Agnes, gave birth to their son, Austin P. Spencer (Jr), in Brooklyn, New York. Austin Spencer Jr. would grow up, marry, and have a son as well, whom he and his wife, Lorraine, named Austin Spencer (III).

MIA’s Sister Follows in Footsteps

It was interesting that as I was searching for more information about Austin’s parents, I found this about Austin’s younger sister Alice Clarice Spencer, who, at just 25, became the first woman Veteran to earn her pilot’s license at Basking Ridge’s Somerset Hills Airport. After receiving her license, she would later that year marry Walter Van Horne at the US Naval Air Station in Alameda, California, where she was based. She graduated from Bernards High (as there was no high school in Bernards Township then). She also had a younger brother, Trueman Jr., an older sister, Emily, and her oldest brother, Austin.

For women, the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Approved by Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942, the WAVES program recruited women between 18 and 36 years old (and officers between 20 and 50) to serve onshore in the continental United States. Many of these women started in 1944. Women maintained aircraft, tested parachutes, were domestic air traffic controllers and weather specialists, and trained men in navigation and gunnery. The WAVES trained male celestial navigators using one of the most sophisticated training devices of the time, the Link Celestial Navigation Trainer. WAVES was integrated into the regular Navy in 1948 with the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act.

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