Jon Lindbergh

{{Infobox person

|name = Jon Lindbergh

|image =

|image_size =

|caption =

|birth_name = Jon Morrow Lindbergh

|birth_date = {{birth date|1932|8|16}}{{cite book|last=Hertog|first=Susan|title=Anne Morrow Lindbergh: Her Life|pages=215–216, 489|location=New York|publisher=Nan A. Talese, Doubleday

|year=1999|isbn=0-385-46973-X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4920lCjwWtcC&pg=PT215}}

|birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.

|death_date = {{death date and age|2021|7|29|1932|8|16}}

|death_place = Lewisburg, West Virginia, U.S.

|occupation = U.S. Navy Underwater Demolition Team, commercial diver, aquanaut

|alma mater = Stanford University
University of California, San Diego

|parents = Charles Lindbergh
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

|spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Barbara Robbins
|1954}}
{{marriage|Karen Pryor|1983|1997|end=div}}
Maura Jansen

}}

|children = 8; including Erik

}}

File:Lindberghs land in England Jan., 1936.jpg

Jon Morrow Lindbergh (August 16, 1932 – July 29, 2021) was an American underwater diver. He worked as a United States Navy demolition expert and as a commercial diver, and was one of the world's earliest aquanauts in the 1960s. He was also a pioneer in cave diving, and one of the children of aviators Charles Lindbergh and Anne Morrow Lindbergh.

Early life

Lindbergh was born on August 16, 1932, five months after the kidnapping and death of his older brother, Charles Lindbergh Jr. Jon's parents had discovered the name "Jon" in a book about Scandinavian history.{{cite book|last=Berg|first=A. Scott|author-link=A. Scott Berg|title=Lindbergh|location=New York|publisher=G. P. Putnam's Sons|year=1998|page=[https://archive.org/details/lindbergh000berg/page/283 283]|isbn=0-399-14449-8|url=https://archive.org/details/lindbergh000berg/page/283}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=4920lCjwWtcC&pg=PT220 Hertog] p. 220 During his mother's pregnancy with him, his parents received large numbers of letters and phone calls threatening his life.[https://books.google.com/books?id=4920lCjwWtcC&pg=PT212 Hertog] p. 212 In 1935, photographers forced a car in which one of Jon's teachers was driving him home off the road in order to take pictures of him. Jon then began to be protected by a detective with a sawed-off shotgun. The Lindberghs soon decided to leave the United States and traveled to the United Kingdom.Berg, pp. 339-341[https://books.google.com/books?id=4920lCjwWtcC&pg=PT278 Hertog] pp. 278-280{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/daily/lindbergh0910.htm |newspaper=The Washington Post|last=Thompson|first=Bob|title=Flight From Celebrity|date=September 10, 1998|page=B1|access-date=May 16, 2012}}

Lindbergh's father tried to teach him how to swim when he was three years old by repeatedly throwing him into the deep end of a swimming pool.{{cite book|last=Milton|first=Joyce|title=Loss of Eden: A Biography of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh|url=https://archive.org/details/lossofedenbiogra00milt|url-access=registration|location=New York|publisher=Harper Collins|year=1993|page=[https://archive.org/details/lossofedenbiogra00milt/page/425 425]|isbn=0-06-016503-0}} In spring 1940 (when he was seven), his father placed him in a pasture with a butting ram in order to learn to protect himself from it.[https://books.google.com/books?id=4920lCjwWtcC&pg=PT377 Hertog] p. 377 As a teenager, Lindbergh was allowed to make a solo three-day boat trip.Milton, p. 426 He also learned to fly before leaving for college, but his father advised him not to pursue aviation as a career.Berg, p. 504

Cave diver, U.S. Navy and commercial diver

In March 1953, when Lindbergh was a marine biology student at Stanford University, he made the first successful cave dive in the United States at Bower Cave in California. The dive was part of an expedition organized by speleologist Raymond de Saussure. Lindbergh discovered a hidden chamber inside the cave, confirming Saussure's theory that the nearby swimming spa was fed from such a chamber. Lindbergh returned the next month to photograph the underwater lake from a rubber raft.{{cite magazine|magazine=Life (Magazine)|title=Dive Reveals Hidden Cavern: Jon Lindbergh makes a discovery|volume=34|issue=21|date=May 25, 1953|pages=129–130, 132|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gUYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA129|via=Google Books}}{{cite book|last=Burgess

|first=Robert F.|author-link=Robert Forrest Burgess|title=The Cave Divers|year=1999|publisher=Aqua Quest Publications|location=Locust Valley, New York|pages=44–49|isbn=1-881652-11-4|lccn=96-39661|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LbwrLGZDMHMC&pg=PA44|chapter=Lindbergh and the Underground Lake|via=Google Books}} Lindbergh also took up mountain climbing and skydiving while in college. After his second year, he moved out of his dormitory into a tent in the foothills of the Coast Range. As a senior at Stanford, Lindbergh took part in an expedition to Mount Shasta in California, during which Werner Hopf, a 30-year-old electronics engineer from the Stanford Research Institute, fell and was seriously injured. Hopf died despite the efforts of Lindbergh and his other companions to save him.{{cite magazine|magazine=Life|title=Tragedy On Frozen Mountain Slope: Climbing party which includes Jon Lindbergh fails to save companion in fall on icy Mount Shasta|volume=35|issue=24|date=December 14, 1953|pages=43–44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PkkEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA43|via=Google Books}}

Lindbergh graduated from Stanford, where he had been a member of the Navy ROTC, and did postgraduate work at the University of California, San Diego. He served for three years as a frogman with the United States Navy Underwater Demolition Team (UDT), reaching the rank of Lieutenant.{{cite web |url=http://www.bigislandforum.org/teams/fanebio.htm|title=Bio: CMDR. DOUG FANE|last=Cargile|first=Edward C.|year=2002|publisher=Community Communications|access-date=May 16, 2012}} He then became a commercial diver, working for Offshore Divers, Inc. in Santa Barbara, California, and making dives from offshore oil rigs on the West Coast of the United States at depths between 230 and 400 feet.{{cite book|last=Sténuit|first=Robert|title=The Deepest Days|others=Trans. Morris Kemp|publisher=Coward-McCann|location=New York|year=1966|page=156|lccn=66-10428}}

In 1966, as part of a team from Ocean Systems, Inc., Jon Lindbergh participated in the recovery efforts when a hydrogen bomb was lost off the coast of Spain.{{cite magazine |last1=Oulahan|first1=Richard|title=The Case of the Missing H-Bomb|magazine=LIFE|date=February 25, 1966|page=106B|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IkwEAAAAMBAJ&dq=jon+lindbergh&pg=PA106|access-date=August 4, 2021|publisher=Time Inc}}{{cite news|last1=Hoare|first1=Callum|title=World War 3: How two nuclear bombs exploded after U.S. pilots bailed from military jet|url=https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1159184/world-war-3-nuclear-bomb-explode-palomares-spain-usaf-soviet-union-spt|access-date=August 4, 2021|publisher=Express.co.uk|date=July 30, 2019|quote=The sub is piloted by the son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh.}}{{cite web|author1=CDR W. M. Place|author2=Col F. C. Cobb|author3=Lt Col C. G. Defferding|title=Palomares Summary Report|url=https://www.osti.gov/opennet/servlets/purl/16478624.pdf|website=osti.gov|publisher=US OSTI|access-date=August 4, 2021|page=188|quote=P.188: He announced the arrival of Jon Lindbergh, of Ocean Systems, who would work with the deep sea recovery portion of the project... P.201: 2. Mr. Jon M. Lindbergh leaving the Perry Submarine (PC-3B) after a dive...}}

Man in Sea project

In June–July 1964, Lindbergh participated in Edwin Link's second Man in Sea experiment, conducted in the Berry Islands (a chain in the Bahamas). Lindbergh's fellow diver for this venture was Robert Sténuit, who had become the world's first aquanaut in 1962. Sténuit and Lindbergh stayed in Link's SPID habitat (Submersible, Portable, Inflatable Dwelling) for 49 hours underwater at a depth of 432 feet, breathing a helium-oxygen mixture.{{cite journal|last=Link|first=Edwin A.|author-link=Edwin Albert Link|date=April 1965|title=Outpost Under the Ocean|journal=National Geographic|volume=127|issue=4|pages=530–533|publisher=National Geographic Society|location=Washington, D.C.}}{{cite journal|last=Sténuit

|first=Robert|date=April 1965|title=The Deepest Days|journal=National Geographic|volume=127|issue=4|pages=534–547|publisher=National Geographic Society|location=Washington, D.C.}}The Deepest Days (Sténuit), passim{{cite book|first=Marion Clayton|last=Link|title=Windows in the Sea|publisher=Smithsonian Institution Press|location=Washington, D.C. |year=1973|isbn=0-87474-130-0|lccn=72-93801|url=https://archive.org/details/windowsinsea0000link}}{{cite book|first=Joe|last=MacInnis|author-link=Joseph B. MacInnis|title=Underwater Man|year=1975|publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company|location=New York|pages=53–68|isbn=0-396-07142-2|lccn=75-680}}

Personal life

Lindbergh married Barbara Robbins on March 20, 1954, in Northfield, Illinois. They were the parents of six children, including aviator and artist Erik Lindbergh (born in 1965).[https://books.google.com/books?id=4920lCjwWtcC&pg=PT439 Hertog], pp. 439, 489.{{cite news | url = http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2008/jun/21/home-with-ties-to-westinghouse-lindbergh-for/ | title = Home With Ties to Westinghouse, Lindbergh Families for Sale | last = Pritchett | first = Rachel | journal = Kitsap Sun | location = Bremerton, Washington | date = June 21, 2008 | access-date = May 16, 2012|url-status=dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080624160900/http://www.kitsapsun.com/news/2008/jun/21/home-with-ties-to-westinghouse-lindbergh-for/ | archive-date = June 24, 2008}}{{cite web | url = http://www.charleslindbergh.com/history/erik.asp | title = Erik Lindbergh Biography | year = 2007 | publisher = Spirit of St. Louis 2 Project | access-date = May 16, 2012}} His second marriage was to Karen Pryor,{{cite web | url = https://karenwpryor.com/biography/ | title = Karen Pryor Biography | year = 2018 | publisher = Karen Pryor | access-date = March 8, 2018}}{{cite news | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1985/07/15/style/gale-t-pryor-is-wed-to-karl-d-leabo.html | work = The New York Times | title = Gale T. Pryor Is Wed to Karl D. Leabo | date = July 15, 1985}} daughter of author Philip Wylie; they divorced in 1997. Lindbergh was married to Maura Jansen, with whom he had two daughters.

When his father was dying, Lindbergh took charge of transporting him from New York City to Hawaii to die, and helped build his father's grave.Berg, pp. 554, 557.

Lindbergh's elder brother, Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the first of six children born to Charles and Anne Lindbergh, died in 1932 in the infamous kidnapping — what many termed at the time "the crime of the century".{{Cite web | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/daily/lindbergh0910.htm | title = washingtonpost.com: Style Live: Style | website = www.washingtonpost.com|access-date=April 15, 2018}} Jon's other Lindbergh siblings are: Land Morrow Lindbergh (born 1937), writer Anne Spencer Lindbergh (1940–1993), conservationist Scott Lindbergh (born 1942),{{Cite news | url = http://people.com/archive/charles-lindberghs-son-scott-raises-rare-monkeys-in-france-vol-3-no-19/ | title = Charles Lindbergh's Son Scott Raises Rare Monkeys in France | last = People Staff | date = May 19, 1975 | work = PEOPLE.com|access-date=April 17, 2018 | language = en | quote = We didn't go to the usual type of parties. Neither of my sisters was a debutante or anything like that. We were never taught there was anything particularly remarkable about my father's flight.}} and writer Reeve Lindbergh (born 1945).

He died from renal cancer in Lewisburg, West Virginia, on July 29, 2021, at the age of 88.[https://www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/21902369/jon-lindbergh Jon Lindbergh obituary]{{cite web |title=Obituaries: Jon Lindbergh |url=https://wvdn.com/19129/ |website=wvdn.com |date=August 4, 2021 |publisher=West Virginia Daily News |access-date=August 5, 2021}}