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Oral History Interview with Cleatus A. LeBow, May 2, 2006 transcript

Oral History Interview with Cleatus A. LeBow, May 2, 2006

Interview with Cleatus A. LeBow, a serviceman in the U. S. Navy during World War II. LeBow joined the navy in 1943 and went from Lubbock, Texas to San Diego for recruit training. He shipped out to Pearl Harbor aboard an LST from San Francisco. At Pearl Harbor, he was assigned to a work detail aboard the USS Oklahoma, which had just been righted. Shortly thereafter, he boarded the USS Indianapolis to serve as a range finder operator on one of the gun turrets. Upon leaving Hawaii, the Indianapolis went to Tarawa and then the Marshall Islands. LeBow witnessed Japanese civilian suicides on Saipan. He also witnessed the flag-raising on Iwo Jima from his range finder position aboard the ship. LeBow describes being hit by a kamikaze off Okinawa. He also discusses delivering atomic bomb components to Tinian and being torpedoed on the way to the Philippines. He describes abandoning the ship and spending five days in the water, including his faith in God, hallucinations, rescue, and his recovery.
Date: May 2, 2006
Creator: Misenhimer, Richard & Lebow, Cleatus A.
Object Type: Sound
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Special Orders Number 121, Extract 2] (open access)

[Special Orders Number 121, Extract 2]

Special orders extract listing several men from Sweetwater who were inducted as flight instructors and Air Corps mechanics that are to remain on inactive status. Rigdon Edwards Jr., known Women Airforce Service Pilots instructor, can be seen listed among the names.
Date: May 20, 1944
Creator: United States. Air Force.
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
[Enlisted Reserve Corp I.D. Rigdon Edwards] (open access)

[Enlisted Reserve Corp I.D. Rigdon Edwards]

Front and back copies of an identification card for the Enlisted Reserve Corps belonging to WASP flight instructor, Rigdon Edwards. They are posted on a sheet of blue paper along with a photograph of Edwards in uniform, seen to the right.
Date: May 20, 1944
Creator: United States Army
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History