Oral history interview with Leon May, [sound recording], 2004.

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Oral history interview with Leon May, [sound recording], 2004.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/770669218

Leon May, a Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin native, discusses his Army service as a postal officer in the European Theater of World War II. May talks about his education and being drafted in 1942 while working for the Postal Service. He describes basic training at Fort McClellan (Alabama), waiting for several months at the newly built Camp Harahan (Louisiana), and graduating as a second lieutenant from postal school at Fort Washington (Washington, D.C.). May highlights the prevalence of smoking amongst soldiers. Assigned to Hampton Roads (Virginia), he speaks of working with Navy personnel to send mail to England with convoys. He talks about assignment to Elizabeth City (North Carolina) as a liaison officer with the Royal Officer and sending mail across on Lend Lease Program airplanes. May discusses being the postal officer for the Ninth Replacement Depot at New Orleans until he was shipped overseas to England. After three weeks in London, he talks about taking over the 515th Army Postal Unit in Chester (England). He comments on how they kept track of the location of Army units, visiting servicemen from Sturgeon Bay, and eventually being sent to France with the Oise Base Section of the Allied Expedition Force in Reims. May touches on getting married to an Englishwoman, spending his leaves in England visiting his wife, and the hospitality of the English. He speaks of USO shows, getting accidentally locked inside Reims Cathedral, mail censorship, and the rumors that preceded V-E Day. May reflects on the positive effect that the mail and the Stars and Stripes newspaper had on morale. He comments on the service provided to families who were trying to get in touch with their sons. May addresses the ship ride home after his unit was disbanded, a quick discharge, and his homecoming. He discusses joining veterans' organizations, including signing up with the American Legion while he was still in France.

Sound recording : 1 sound cassette (ca. 30 min.); analog, 1 7/8 ips.Master sound recording : 1 sound cassette (ca. 30 min.); analog, 1 7/8 ips.Transcript : 11 p.

Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center

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SNAC Resource ID: 8187282

Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center

Related Entities

There are 5 Entities related to this resource.

Wisconsin Veterans Museum

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w69s5frp (corporateBody)

United States. Army. Postal Unit, 515th.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6xh4rj5 (corporateBody)

Macdonald, Terry

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kh0t40 (person)

May, Leon, 1917-2011,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6126w19 (person)

May (1917-2011) served in the Army from 1942 to 1946. In 1944, he was married to Elsie Williams, in England. After the war, he and his war bride settled in Sturgeon Bay (Wisconsin), where May worked for over thirty-five years at the Sturgeon Bay Post Office. Following retirement in 1972, he became a real estate broker with his family's firm, May Realty. From the description of Oral history interview with Leon May, [sound recording], 2004. (Wisconsin Veterans Museum Research Center). ...

United States. Army

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6km312r (corporateBody)

The United States Army is the largest branch of the United States Armed Forces and performs land-based military operations. It is one of the seven uniformed services of the United States and is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution, Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1 and United States Code, Title 10, Subtitle B, Chapter 301, Section 3001. As the largest and senior branch of the U.S. military, the modern U.S. Army has its roots in the Continental Army, which wa...