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World War II memoir of Navy Cross recipient Dale M. Leslie, 1942.
Amount:
1 compact disks 7 photographs
Medium Included:
Organization/Arrangement:
Unarranged.
Restrictions:
Terms Governing Use:
Biographical/Historical:
Dale M. Leslie (1917-1998) was a Colonel United States Marine Corps Reserve (retired), World War II Guadalcanal hero, and native of Madison County, Florida. He attended school in Madison County where he was a star athlete in baseball, football, and basketball. After high school, he attended the University of Florida on a scholarship from the Florida State Road Department. After his college career, in May 1941, Leslie entered Naval aviation training. He selected the United States Marine Corps as the service in which to take his commission and flew dive bomber and fighter aircraft for the Marines in the Pacific theatre of World War II.
On September 27, 1942, Leslie provided close air support to a Marine unit that had been trapped by a significantly larger Japanese force. He provided communications liaison between the Marine ground force and the Navy ships sent to rescue that force. He also provided direct support by making machine gun and bombing runs onto the enemy's positions. In addition, he supervised the retrieval of all the Marines of the infantry unit, including some who had been missed in the original rescue runs. Leslie was able to convey to the rescue boats that there were Marines in the water trying to swim to the larger ships standing off shore and ensured that those Marines were picked up. For those actions, Leslie was awarded the Navy Cross, the nation's second most senior decoration for valor in combat.
The following day, Leslie was shot down by a Japanese aircraft and spent forty days eluding Japanese soldiers. A Catholic priest missionary took him in before he could return to the Marine base at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. Leslie returned to Madison County and in 1948 won election as Clerk of the Circuit Court, a position he held until 1980.
Summary:
This collection consists of an audio recording and seven photographs relating to Dale M. Leslie's combat activities during World War II. A compact disk recording, made from a cassette tape, contains an address given by Dale M. Leslie to the Madison, Florida Men's Methodist Fellowship on November 2, 1962. In his address, Colonel Leslie recounts the actions for which he earned the Navy Cross and relates his adventures after being shot down in the air battles for Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands in 1942. In addition, the collection contains seven photographs of Colonel Leslie and some of his squadron mates, indigenous Solomon Island people, and Father DeKlerk, the priest in whose care he found sanctuary until he returned to the American forces at Henderson Field.
Finding Aids:
Additional Physical Form:
Reproduction Note:
Location of Originals/Duplicates:
Family of Dale M. Leslie retains the original audio cassette tape from which the compact disk recording was duplicated.
Associated Materials:
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Electronic Records Access:
Subject Access Fields:
Leslie, Dale M. 1917-1998
World War, 1939-1945.
Compact disks. aat Sound recordings. aat Photographs. aat
Madison (Fla.)
for detailed listing.