Ten Eyck De Witt Veeder, Jr. – Lieutenant, United States Navy

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NAVAL AVIATOR DIES AS HE SAFELY ALIGHTS
Lieutenant Veeder Slumps in Seat When Plane Reaches Capital from Hampton Roads

WASHINGTON, May 29, 1925 – Lieutenant Theodore W. Veeder of the Naval Air Service died today as the plane in which he made a flight from Hampton Roads, nearly 200 miles away, touched the ground at the Anacostia Naval Air Field, Washington.

An observer who was with Lieutenant Veeder and spectators on the field saw the young officer slump in his seat as the plane came to a standstill just in front of the hangar.  Lieutenant Guy Fish of the Medical Corps reached the scene in a few minutes, but Lieutenant Veeder was dead.

Surgeons were unable to ascertain the cause of Lieutenant Veeder’s death.  A special board of inquest to investigate will meet tomorrow.  One theory suggested was that the death resulted from carbon monoxide gas.  The observer who flew with Lieutenant Veeder said he saw nothing unusual about the officer’s management of the machine.

The manner in which Lieutenant Veeder made the landing showed that he maintained full control practically up to the moment that he died.  Dr. James Lyon, one of the physicians summoned, said that a peculiar feature of the case was that Veeder’s heart continued to beat after he had stopped breathing.

NAVAL INQUIRY BEGINS ON AVIATOR’S DEATH;
LIEUTENANT VEEDER’S FAMILY BLAME MONOXIDE GAS

WASHINGTON, May 30, 1925 – A Naval Court of Inquiry today began an investigation into the sudden death of Lieutenant Ten Eyck De Witt Veeder, Jr., Naval Aviator, who collapsed yesterday at the Naval Air Field at Anacostia, opposite the Washington Navy Yard, just as his plane, in which he had flown from Hampton Roads, Virginia, came to a standstill.

All the circumstances of the case indicate that the young officer, steeped in service tradition by heredity and experience, clung to life until the last in order to save Richard Barthelmess, a passenger in the machine, who is working on a film dealing with the Navy at Annapolis and Norfolk.

Members of Lieutenant Veeder’s family reject the theory advanced that he died of heart failure.  They are inclined to the view that his death was due to inhaling carbon monoxide gas.  The Court of Inquiry will seek to determine the cause of death.  It will not make its report until next week.

Mr. Barthelmess did not know his pilot was ill until the plane came to a halt at the air field.  Information last night that Lieutenant Veeder died instantly proved to be erroneous.  He was taken to the Naval Hospital in Washington and died about two hours later without regaining consciousness.

Lieutenant Veeder was the son of the late Commodore Ten Eyck De Witt Veeder of the Navy, who was born in New York and appointed to the Naval Academy from that State.  His mother, who was Miss Mary Greene of Savannah, Georgia, resided at 1734 P Street, Washington.

Lieutenant Veeder was born July 7, 1895 in Virginia, where his maternal grandmother, a resident of Savannah, had a country place.  He received an at-large appointment to the Naval Academy.

VEEDER, TON EYCK DEWITT
LT U S NAVY
DATE OF DEATH: 05/29/1925
BURIED AT:   SITE 1196
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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