Oral History Interview with Leland Gwin, May 10, 2012 transcript

Oral History Interview with Leland Gwin, May 10, 2012

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Leland Gwin. After Gwin's brother was captured on Corregidor, Gwin vowed to rescue him. In late 1944, when he turned 17, Gwin joined the Navy. Upon completion of amphibious training, he was assigned as an engineer to an LCVP attached to the USS Rockingham (APA-229). While landing troops at Okinawa, he rescued a crew whose landing gear failed and evacuated 150 wounded off a hospital ship that was attacked. Gwin was later assigned to pick up American POWs from Leyte, where he met someone who had been imprisoned with his brother. Gwin learned that although his brother survived the Bataan Death March, he had been worked to death in a coalmine. Gwin spent the next six months transporting soldiers home, making four round trips before by June 1946. He then received orders to Bikini Atoll but was granted leave to see his dying mother and was subsequently discharged. Several of the men who went in his place died soon after from exposure to radiation.
Date: May 10, 2012
Creator: Gwin, Leland
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
Oral History Interview with Leland Gwin, May 10, 2012 (open access)

Oral History Interview with Leland Gwin, May 10, 2012

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Leland Gwin. After Gwin's brother was captured on Corregidor, Gwin vowed to rescue him. In late 1944, when he turned 17, Gwin joined the Navy. Upon completion of amphibious training, he was assigned as an engineer to an LCVP attached to the USS Rockingham (APA-229). While landing troops at Okinawa, he rescued a crew whose landing gear failed and evacuated 150 wounded off a hospital ship that was attacked. Gwin was later assigned to pick up American POWs from Leyte, where he met someone who had been imprisoned with his brother. Gwin learned that although his brother survived the Bataan Death March, he had been worked to death in a coalmine. Gwin spent the next six months transporting soldiers home, making four round trips before by June 1946. He then received orders to Bikini Atoll but was granted leave to see his dying mother and was subsequently discharged. Several of the men who went in his place died soon after from exposure to radiation.
Date: May 10, 2012
Creator: Gwin, Leland
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History