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My Family History
One reason I decided to take my 2001 trip around America was to learn more about my family's history. I've always been interested in where I came from and who my ancestors were, but working at an 8-to-5 job for many years never allowed me the time to find out. After my mother passed away in 1999, however, I decided to make the time and then, via this website, share that information with my relatives. Therefore, in March 2001 I quit my job of 10 years in Portland to see what I could learn about my family's history.
I spent several months in 2001 traveling around the U.S. while researching my family's history on both my mother's and father's side. Both families, as I've learned, had interesting stories. Most of my mother's ancestors were homesteaders from Norway who moved to the upper Midwest in the late 1800s. Some of my father's ancestors were among the earliest white settlers of North America, arriving just a few years after the Mayflower in the 1620s. Others came to America from Switzerland in the mid-1800s.
As I discovered during my journey around America, my mother's and father's lines shared several things in common, including the immigrant's work ethic and a desire for land. It's a desire that, with each generation, pushed them further and further west across America in search of their own place to call home. It's, really, the quintessential American story.
In this section, called Family History, I've summarized what I've learned about my two ancestral lines culminating in 1943 when my mother met my father at a dance in Dickinson, North Dakota – perhaps appropriately on July Fourth weekend. I've summarized my family's history with maps, photos and stories on these pages:
I've posted more stories about my family's history below.
My Father's Side SACO: The Sino-American Cooperative Organization My father, Donald J. Leu (1923 - 2002), volunteered with the U.S. Navy on December 8, 1941, the day after the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by the Japanese. He signed up for the Naval Reserve that day and eighteen months later, after finishing his sophomore year in college, he entered an intense Naval Officer Training program. The navy was preparing to invade Japan, scheduled for 1946 or 1947, and they planned to use China, an important U.S. ally during the war, as a springboard for the upcoming assault. My dad finished the officer training program in 1944, trained with a special operations program that was the forerunner of the Navy SEALs, then was sent to China in June 1945 to fight the Japanese and help spearhead the invasion.
He fought the Japanese army in China with a unique but little-known group known as SACO (the Sino-American Cooperative Organization). Officially known as Naval Group China and informally called "The Rice Paddy Navy," SACO was one of the most unusual and yet effective combat units of World War II. It was also the first and only American military unit ever to be completely integrated into a foreign military force.
SACO consisted of about 2,500 Americans, mostly in the U.S. Navy and Marines, who embedded with tens of thousands of Chinese Nationalist troops in China to fight the Japanese. The Americans fought as guerillas, trained the Chinese troops, and served as coast watchers secretly monitoring Japanese ship movements. Fourteen SACO camps sprang up in China during World War II to battle the Japanese, as shown on this map.
Don, who rose in the ranks from Ensign to Lieutenant Commander during his naval career, drove in a convoy of trucks from India to China via the Burma Road to resupply SACO bases there. Once in China, he engaged in guerilla warfare against the Japanese troops while he was with SACO, before the war ended suddenly and unexpectedly in September 1945. After the war, he spent several months training 1,200 Chinese guerilla troops at SACO's main base, near China's wartime capital, Chungking. He decided to return to America in 1946 rather than stay in China and continue training the Nationalist troops. That was a fortunate decision because China fell to the Communists three years later.
Due to wartime secrecy, not much was ever written or known about this unorthodox group of Americans called SACO and its charismatic leader, Captain Milton Miles, so I put together this section describing them.
It all starts on my SACO Home Page.
Above left: My father, Donald Leu, a newly-commissioned ensign in July 1944. After a year of training in Florida with the Navy's Scouts and Raiders team (later known as the SEALs), he was sent to Calcutta, India where he joined SACO. Above center: In August 1945, Don drove a truck from Calcutta to China on the muddy Burma Road, a vital supply link for China during World War II. This was one of the first Allied convoys into China after the Burma Road had been won back from the Japanese army. Above right: My dad on a motorcycle (with sidecar) at SACO's main base, near Chungking, China in 1945.
The U.S.S. Neosho My dad's older brother, Bill Leu, joined the U.S. Navy in May 1941, six months before the U.S. became embroiled in World War II. Bill, who was 19, signed onto the Navy's oil tanker U.S.S. Neosho (AO-23), the largest tanker in the world at the time. The Neosho was one of the most important navy ships early in the war because of its crucial role in the Pacific Ocean, yet few people today know its fascinating and ultimately tragic story.
Bill was aboard the U.S.S. Neosho at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on the morning of December 7, 1941 during the Japanese surprise attack and watched the assault while manning the Neosho's forward gun. Six months later, the Neosho was furiously attacked by 24 Japanese dive-bombers during the Battle of the Coral Sea and was badly damaged. Bill and 122 other men clung to the deck of the listing tanker for five days until they were rescued by an American destroyer. Over 400 American sailors on the Neosho and the navy destroyer that was protecting it, the U.S.S. Sims, died during the battle.
Because so few people know the captivating story of the Neosho and its crew, I've put together a section describing the ship. I've posted its tragic story, several photos and battle maps, as well as video interviews I made of Bill in 2002 as he described the battles at Pearl Harbor and in the Coral Sea.
It all starts on my U.S.S. Neosho Home Page.
Above left: Fireman 3rd Class, Bill Leu, soon after he enlisted in the Navy in 1941. Above center: The U.S.S. Neosho (AO-23) in Norfolk, Virginia on August 7, 1939, three months after it was launched. Above right: One of the maps I've drawn to illustrate the Battle of the Coral Sea, in May 1942. Now largely forgotten, the battle was considered at the time to be one of the most important naval conflicts in world history. In fact, many Australians still refer to it as, "The battle that saved Australia."
Other Stories From My Dad's Side My dad's ancestors included some of the earliest settlers of North America, arriving in Massachusetts in the 1620s. Here are some of their stories:
My Mother's Side
My mother's ancestors were mostly from Norway and Germany. They emigrated to the U.S. in the late 1800s, crossed the prairie in covered wagons and homesteaded in the upper Midwest.
Note: For security reasons I haven't posted my mother's maiden name on my website. In place of her maiden name I've used the name "Reinhard." But everything else I've posted about the Reinhards, other than their last name, is true as far as I know.
Here are stories of my mother's ancestors:
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