LEE, James Lelan, St. Helena Parish, Louisiana
File prepared by D.N. Pardue and submitted by Inez Bridges Tate.
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Submitted to the LAGenWeb Archives
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From "St. Helena Vets Remember World War II: Personal Interviews
With World War II Vets", published by St. Helena Historical
Association, 1995.  Compiled and edited by Inez Bridges Tate and
reprinted with permission.

     James Lelan Lee was born in McComb, Mississippi and grew up
in the Red Bluff Community.  He graduated from Greensburg High
School in 1942, part of the first class to graduate after Oakland
High School was consolidated with Greensburg High.  After Grad-
uation, he worked for O.C. Harrell who operated a dairy and also
bottled milk.  They had a route of regular customers to deliver
milk.  Lelan also worked at Avondale Shipyard, New Orleans, one
year before he was inducted into service.

     Lelan was drafted into the Navy on December 20, 1943,
entering at New Orleans.  Basic training was at San Diego Train-
ing Center, California.  He was then assigned to the USS Tangier,
a sea plane tender, that hauled aviation gasoline.  They traveled 
alone as no other ship wanted them in a convoy with their highly
explosive cargo.

     Overseas duty lasted for 18 months and the assignment was
in the South Pacific.  He recalls they visited many, many
islands transporting the fuel.

     The Tangier went into the Bay and docked near Tokyo and they
were able to go ashore.  He recalls seeing the devastation
caused when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.  He also
viewed the site of the explosion of the training atom bomb into
a volcano on Enewietok, a small island in the Pacific Ocean.

     Under "Remarks" on Lelan's discharge we note:  "commended
by C.O. of U.S.S. Tangier, Asiatic-Pacific**.  Unit Commenda-
tion by General McArthur - Philippines Liberation. **  Highest
rank or rating held: COX (T)

     Lelan was discharged on January 12, 1946 in New Orleans.
Returning to St. Helena Parish, he married Miss Imogene Frazier
in 1948.  He has one daughter, three grandchildren and two great
grandchildren.

     Leland worked for Gaylord, a timber company, for about two
years.  He bagan working for Transco in 1951 and retired from
that company in 1985.  They lived in Jackson, La. until shortly
before his retirement.

     Following the demise of Imogene, his first wife, he married
Mrs. Rita Hyde Westmoreland in 1979, a widow and mother of three,
grandmother of nine and great grandmother of three.

     They moved back to the Red Bluff Community in 1983 and live
in a neat home at the end of a tree-shaded drive - a serene and
peaceful setting.  Gardening is a hobby as evidenced by flowering
plants and shrubs.  Lelan also maintains a vegetable garden.

-------

Newspaper clipping:

31 Aug. 1945

Somewhere in the Pacific ----
James Lehley Lee, Seaman, 1/c,
USNR, of Greensburg La., is a 
crew member of the USS Tan-
gier, a seaplane tender, which
has long served as one of the
Navy's most important floating
bases.

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