Naval History and Heritage Command

Finding aid (Word)

Biographical Note

Captain Edmund M. Ragsdale was born on 2 January 1904 in Brunson, South Carolina. During his naval career he was promoted as follows: on 3 June 1929 to Lieutenant (jg), August 1936 to Lieutenant, January 1941 to Lieutenant Commander, January 1943 to Commander and August 1943 to Captain.

On 13 June 1922 he was appointed a Midshipman from Florida to the Naval Academy. He was commissioned Ensign on 3 June 1929. On 19 June 1929 he was assigned to the Battleship Divisions, Battle Fleet in communications duty. His next tour of duty was as a postgraduate instructor at the Naval Academy, teaching naval construction. He also instructed at the Navy Yard, Portsmouth, NH and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Then he went on to the Navy Yard Mare Island and Navy Yard Pearl Harbor. In April 1941, he was assigned to the office of the Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Company, Seattle, Washington. Later in 1943 he was attached to the Bureau of Ships, Navy Department, Washington, D.C. After his tour of duty at the Bureau of Ships, he was assigned to the Naval Operating Base, Palermo, Sicily, in August 1944. He retired on 1 July1948 and died on 21 July 1966.

Scope and Content Note

These papers relate to the naval service of Captain Edmund M. Ragsdale. These documents consist of biographical data, his Gold Star citation, separation orders, a transcript of an interview with Ragsdale, indoctrination for return to U.S., undocking and repair reports for USS Hambleton, and messages.

Preferred Citation

This collection should be cited as Papers of Edmund M. Ragsdale, Archives Branch, Naval History and Heritage Command, Washington, D.C.