Interview with Irl D. Leet, October 14, 2008

Partial Transcript: We are interviewing Irl D. Leet.

Segment Synopsis: Irl D. Leet is introduced as a rank E3 veteran of the United States Army during World War II. Leet discusses how he was drafted into World War II. He heard of the bombing of Pearl Harbor while in high school. He mentions trying to enlist in the Air Force but being denied based on a vision problem. He was sent to Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana to complete his basic training.

Keywords: Air Force; Basic training; Draft; Draft notice; Fort Benjamin Harrison (Ind.); High schools; Indiana; Japanese people; La Grange (Ky.); Oldham County (Ky.); Oldham County Historical Society (Oldham County, Ky.); Oldham County History Center; Pearl Harbor; Veterans; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Draft; Kentucky; Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945--Veterans.

Partial Transcript: And, uh, do you recall what it was like your first days in the, in the service?

Segment Synopsis: Leet talks about his first days in the military after being drafted. He did his basic training at Fort Benjamin Harrison and then went to the University of Illinois for veterinary school through the Army but did not earn the grades he needed to stay there. He was sent to Fort McCoy in Wisconsin for training and then the 94th Division in Fort Riley, Kansas.

Keywords: 94th Division; Basic training; Champaign (Ill.); Fort McCoy (Wis.); Fort Riley (Kan.); Hospitals; Kansas; Pennsylvania; United States Army; University of Illinois; Veterans; Veterinary technicians; WWII; Wisconsin; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Basic training (Military education); United States. Army.; Veterinary medicine; World War, 1939-1945

Partial Transcript: But I went to India--Bombay, India.

Segment Synopsis: Leet traveled to Bombay, India, via ship. The ship was crowded, and he spent much time standing in line for food. The ocean was not rough because the ship used to be a luxury cruise ship. Leet landed in Bombay and travelled to Calcutta by train but became stranded in a forest due to an earthquake. From there, he travelled to Burma and then returned to Calcutta. After that, he travelled to China.

Keywords: Airplane travel; Boat travel; Bombay, India; Burma; Calcutta, India; China; Earthquakes; Forests; India; Kolkata (India); Monkeys; Mumbai (India); Pennsylvania; Ship travel; Train travel; United States. Army--Military Life; Vehicle travel; Veterans; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two; World War, 1939-1945--India

Subjects: Air travel.; China.; India.; Ocean travel; Transatlantic voyages; United States. Army.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945--India

Partial Transcript: And we stayed in a--I was in a--well, the little town of Beicheng, they called it, but we--in a school or something, it was a converted school, it had been abandoned.

Segment Synopsis: Leet stayed in a small town in China in a converted school and helped get horses ready for locals to take them down to plane crashes to help the people in the crash. It would take days sometimes to get to the crash.

Keywords: Air travel; Airplane crashes; Burma; China; Chinese Army; Commander Shea; Doc Shea; Horses; Pack trains; Plane crashes; Search and rescue; Shea; Veterans; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Air travel.; World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--China; World War, 1939-1945--China

Partial Transcript: When you were in China did you, uh, ever meet or hear about this, uh, General Chennault?

Segment Synopsis: Lee says that he knew General Chennault, commander of the "Flying Tigers." He flew from China to Tibet in a Flying Tiger airplane and then lived on an emergency strip and hauled horses for the Chinese Army. He describes the emergency strip as a place planes could land in but had difficult lifting off from due to its close proximity to the mountains.

Keywords: Air bases; Air strips; Airplane travel; China; General Chennault; General Claire Lee Chennault; Horses; Jeeps; Mountains; Mud; Tents; The Flying Tigers; Tibet; United States Army; Veterans; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Chennault, Claire Lee, 1893-1958.; China; Horses; Tibet Autonomous Region (China); United States Army.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, American

Partial Transcript: Do you, uh, do you remember what you had to pay for the horses that you, you were buying?

Segment Synopsis: Leet says he bought tea from India and traded it for horses. Around three and a half loads of tea could be traded for a horse. Money would be printed overseas and would be sent to them, which they would use to buy tea and then buy horses. Leet says there were few Japanese people close to where he was. However, he said they would sometimes disguise themselves as Chinese people to spy on them.

Keywords: China; Chinese people; Currency; Horses; India; Japanese people; Money; Tea; Tibet; Trains; Veterans; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: China; Chinese; Horses; India.; Japanese; Tea; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945--China; World War, 1939-1945--India

Partial Transcript: This picture that you're, you're showing us, is that you?

Segment Synopsis: Leet shows a picture that has him and a Chinese colonel and commander "Doc Shea" as well as a few other enlisted men. He points out a Tibetan man who flew on an airplane with Leet and his crew to show them where to go, but he became scared of the airplane and laid down the entire time.

Keywords: Air travel; Airplanes; Airstrips; Bender; Colonels; Commander Shea; Doc Shea; Lieutenants; Mountains; Photographs; Pictures; Tibetan people; United States Army.; Valleys; Veterans; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Air travel.; China; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945--China

Partial Transcript: But we'd take money and bottles of that, put it in your shirt and go shopping.

Segment Synopsis: Leet talks about how there was not a lot of oversight over his crew while he was in the war, and sometimes no one knew where his crew was. With not a lot to do, they spent time hunting animals like deer. One of their neighbors had a monkey that kept watch over them. Leet says the army gave them a little food, but his crew mainly ate food they found from the places they would live in. He says they bought several hundred horses during his time in China. When he went to Tibet, the people living there would bring them wild horses for Leet and his crew to buy with tea. The only thing they checked was to see if the horses had teeth because that meant they could eat without needing help. Leet says the mail would come by airplane, but it would be around a month late. He never knew where his brothers were in the war, but he was at the same base in Calcutta as his older brother, who was in the United States Coast Guard, at the end of the war, though neither of them knew it.

Keywords: Airplanes; Bases; Brothers; Calcutta (India); China; Food; Horses; Hunting deer; Kolkata (India); Lack of oversight; Mail; Military bases; Monkey keeping watch; Tea; Teeth; Tibet; Tooth; United States Coast Guard; Veterans; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Brothers.; Deer.; Horses; Kolkata (India); Mail; Tea; Tibet Autonomous Region (China); United States Army.; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945--China

Partial Transcript: When you were in Burma, did you, uh, uh, ever hear of, uh, that, uh, Merrill, Merrill's Marauders?

Segment Synopsis: Leet says Merrill's Marauders would fly planes in the area when he was in Burma. Leet says the horses he bought would be transferred to the Chinese army, which would use them as pack animals. He says he is not sure whether the Chinese army would buy the horses, but he knows they would wait until the horses numbered in the hundreds and then they would herd the horses from Tibet to China. He confirms that his crew was mainly left alone during their entire time of the war and he says he was in China and Tibet for a year and a half. He says there were five people in the crew that would go to Tibet to buy the wild horses, which were horses that had never been ridden. One horse he traded for was a bigger one named Ryder. He had to trade everything he possessed for the ability to return home and then he returned to the base camp by horseback because horses were the only transportation. As a person who grew up in rural areas, he already knew how to ride horses, so that is why he got involved in that crew.

Keywords: Base camps; Bases; Burma; Camps; China; Chinese Army; Chinese people; Horses; Merrill's Marauders; Pack animals; Rider; Ryder; Tea; Tibet; Veterans; WWII; Wild horses; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Burma; China; Horses; Tea; Tibet Autonomous Region (China); World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945--China

Partial Transcript: About a couple months before I went back in there, I run out of--didn't have any ra-razors--shave--anything to shave with, I let my hair grow--beard down to about like that.

Segment Synopsis: Leet ran out of razors, so he had to let his hair and beard grow long. He mainly ate barley and oat flour mixed together and yak milk twice a day. He ate the flour in a handmade bowl he kept with him at all times. Most people in the region did not eat much meat, so Leet did not eat much meat beyond fish. He received hard bread once that they warmed and soaked with water. When they visited monasteries, the people there would make big pots of tea they would share with visitors.

Keywords: Aspirin; Barber shops; Barley; Barley flour; Beards; Biscuits; Bowls; First aid kits; Fish; Hair; Haircuts; Meat; Milk; Monasteries; Oat; Oat flour; Razors; Salmon; Shaving; Tea; Vegetarianism; Vegetarians; Veterans; Villages; WWII; Water; World War II; World War Two; Yak milk; Yaks

Subjects: Aquatic animals; Flour; Food; Milk; Monasteries; Vegetarian foods.; World War, 1939-1945

Partial Transcript: Were you able to get any packages from home with food or, or cookies or anything?

Segment Synopsis: Leet could get letters from home, but no packages with food. He wrote many letters and would run out of papers. He had a camera but ran out of film, too, and no one in the area would sell film. He bought a teapot and sent it home. Anytime Leet's crew would buy anything, they bought things by the "horse load." He would buy eggs and one time bought fifty dozen at a time. They cooked the eggs in a skillet over a fireplace they built by themselves. Leet was by himself almost the entire time he left Tibet. He would go from village to village buying horses. The horses were wild and they mainly tried to corral them since it was difficult to ride them.

Keywords: Airplanes; Bowls; Bread; Cameras; China; Chinese people; Cookies; Eggs; Film; Food; Horses; Letters; Packages; Papers; Pepper; Planes; Salt; Sores; Tea; Teapots; Teeth; Tibet; Villages; WWII; Wild horses; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: China; Eggs.; Food; Horses; Mail; Paper; Tea; Teapots; Tibet Autonomous Region (China); World War, 1939-1945

Partial Transcript: But, uh, when I--I didn't know anything about anything that was about what was happening.

Segment Synopsis: Leet never knew about what was happening in the war because news could not be delivered to him. He learned from the people native to the areas he was in that the war had ended with a "big boom." When he found out the war had ended, he gave all of his possessions to Chinese people, who would give him a "chop," which was a receipt. The only thing he took was his big horse, Ryder. Returning from Tibet, the people native to the area were now hostile to him and shot toward him without hitting anyone. He kept ammunition in case he needed to use it. Leet went back to the towns he had been to before and stayed with people he'd stayed with before. They kept track of distance via days rather than miles, and they travelled via trails because there were no roads. He made it back to his base camp, flew to Calcutta, and then got on a ship at Bombay. He spent two days in Burma on a small boat and fished. The boat got stuck, but the tide raised and allowed the boat to move again.

Keywords: Bait; Base camps; Bases; Boats; Bombay (India); Brothers; Burma; Calcutta, India; Camps; China; Chinese people; Days; Decks; Docks; Fish; Fishing; Horses; Kolkata (India); Mumbai (India); Radios; Riverboat; Rivers; Roads; Ships; Tea; Tibet; Tides; Towns; Trails; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Air travel.; China; Horses; Horses--Transportation; Kolkata (India); Mumbai (India); Ocean travel.; Radio; Ship; Tea; Tibet Autonomous Region (China); World War, 1939-1945

Partial Transcript: So you got on the ship in Bombay, and where did you go back to?

Segment Synopsis: Leet landed in New York City and was discharged in Louisville, Kentucky. He mainly golfed for the first few weeks. He worked in a factory for two days, but quit because it was too loud. Then, he worked for American Standard, which made bath outfits, and was a pipefitters' helper. He married Jane Callahan and worked for Belknap for around five years. He bought a sporting goods store and worked there until a competitor made it difficult for him to sell anything. He sold the store and then worked for a used car dealership, Bob Hook Chevrolet, for twelve years and then opened his own dealership, which he sold and then worked for a picture framing company.

Keywords: American Standard; Belknap; Bob Hook Chevrolet; Bombay (India); Car dealers; Car dealerships; Car sales; Chevrolets; Golf; Picture framing; Pipefitters; Statue of Liberty; Trains; Used car dealerships; Used cars; WWII; World War 2; World War II; World War Two

Subjects: Indianapolis (Ind.); Louisville (Ky.); Mumbai (India); New York (State); Statue of Liberty National Monument (Agency : U.S.); Used car trade; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945--Veterans

Partial Transcript: Now you were married, uh, two years after you got out of the service?

Segment Synopsis: Leet got married two years after leaving the service and had one boy named Michael. He had one brother in the Coast Guard and one in the Navy. His older brother, who was in the Coast Guard, transported troops to the places they needed to go. He kept in touch with his commanding officer and a sergeant in Pittsburgh. Leet is thanked for sharing his experience and is told that his experience is one of the most unusual ones the interviewer has heard.

Keywords: Bombay (India); Boys; Brain tumors; Brothers; California; China; Coast Guard; Commanding officers; Florida; Horses; La Grange (Ky.); Married; Miami (Fla.); Michael Leet; Mumbai (India); Navy; Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh (Pa.); Sergeants; Sons; South Carolina; Strokes; United States Coast Guard; United States Navy; Washington State; Wife; Wives

Subjects: Horses; United States. Coast Guard.; United States. Navy; World War, 1939-1945; World War, 1939-1945--Veterans