My niece Susan found my oldest brother’s, who was 17 years older, letters home from the USS Leyte, an aircraft carrier, as they sailed towards Korea in the summer/fall of 1950. I had just turned 6 years old in July. My first memories of Al were when he was on Leyte’s ’49 – ’50 Mediterranean cruise and sent a coffee table Paris picture book home.
In the years preceding the Korean War, the Leyte participated in numerous other fleet exercises in the Atlantic and Caribbean, trained naval reservists, and deployed three times to the Mediterranean: April–June 1947, July–November 1947, September 1949 – January 1950, and May–August 1950.
He came home, on leave, after the cruise. I remember the story of his ferrying his aircraft to Norfolk, with a bottle of Channel #5, for mother, in his B4 flight bag with his uniforms. As a result of the pressure difference at altitude, or vibration/turbulance, the stopper came loose, soaking his uniforms. He received many comments that evening in the Officer’s Club. He hitchhiked home from Norfolk.
The letters were typed on his portable Smith Corona typewriter, which I remember being at the house after the war.
I scanned and OCRed the letter and am posting JPG to retain the formatting.
22 September 1950
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Dot & Dan are Dottie and Dan Wiggins, our paternal 1st cousin and her husband. Dottie is aunt Mattie Bell’s daughter. For those not familiar, in the family Al was known as Miller.
29 September 1950
Some historical context, on September 15th, 1950 U.S. X Corps, with the 1st Marine Division, in the lead, conducts amphibious landing at Inchon. By September 27th, U.S. and Republic of Korea (ROK) forces capture Seoul, the South Korean capital. [cite]
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Mrs. Hernandez was one of his high school teachers, I assume Tommy is her relative. My guess is Robert Robertson was a high school classmate.
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I recall talk of moving to North Carolina, dad inherited 20+ acres in Rocky Point when grandfather passed away and the aunts lived in Goldsboro, where dad was raised. Dad had attended UNC.
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Al had attended the University of Miami as part of the Navy’s WW-II V-12 program which took high school graduates put them through college and then trained them as aviators.
The YE Code was transmitted by a homing device on the carrier, see YE/ZB System.
Be sure and ask Kris about the Mail Buoy.
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Evidently Jerry was visiting Aunt Mary in North Carolina. Mother was in the State Hospital at Chattahoochee, following her nervous breakdown. The YE code consist of 12 letters, representing a compass heading. The first letter in the sentence was the Morse code letter for various thirty degree sectors, in order.
8 October 1950
Mary is aunt Mary.
Early December 1950
Text of what I believe was a news release to hometown newspapers, on the back side was news about the Wosan Evacuation which occured in early December.
Ens. Charles M. Lane, USN of Arvada, Colorado a Corsair fighter pilot was assigned by his controller to attack several buildings containing troops in the Chosin Area. “I picked out the largest one and plastered with a napalm fire bomb. As I came around for a second run there were many troops running out of and into the surrounding buildings, so I made some more rocketing attacks and scored several direct hits”, said Ens. Lane upon his return to the ship. Another Corsair Pilot, Ens. Alexander A. Miller, USN, of Fernandina., Florida, inflicted heavy casualties on a troop implacement which was located on a ridge commanding Marine Positions in a ravine below. His napalm and rocket attacks were reported as excellent by his air controller.
4 December 1950
This letter was severly damage, the image is of a flat bed scanned copy. The date is based on “Jesse Brown, the colored boy, was shot down …today” which occured on 4 December.
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25 December 1950
Because of the damage to this letter I will include both an image of the original and the transcription.
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OCRed
The camp at Fuijiama (sic) is actually The Fujiya Hotel, at the base of Mt. Fujiama, both Al & Jerry visited it during their tours in Korea. Here are some contemporary photos (ca 1950) of the hotel.
9 January 1951
Historical Context: Leyte arrived at the Sasebo base for U.S. Fleet Activities in Sasebo, Japan on 8 October 1950 and made final preparations for combat operations.
From 9 October-19 January 1951, the ship and her aircraft spent 92 days at sea and flew 3,933 sorties against North Korean forces. Her pilots accumulated 11,000 hours in the air while inflicting massive damage upon enemy positions, supplies, transportation, and communications.
Among the squadrons based on Leyte were the VF-32 Swordsmen, flying the F4U Corsair. This was Al’s squadron and included the first African-American naval aviator, Ensign Jesse LeRoy Brown who was killed in action on 4 December 1950.
Leyte returned to Norfolk for overhaul 25 February 1951.
Musing of an Old Curmudgeon 