Oral History Interview with Ledford Coggeshell, October 6, 2008 Track: 1 of 1

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Ledford Coggeshell. Coggeshell joined the Navy in 1938 as a means of earning money for college. Following boot camp, he boarded the USS California (BB-44) in Long Beach and sailed to the Atlantic. The California sailed back to the Pacific through the Panama Canal, where Coggeshell witnessed President Roosevelt board with South American heads of state. Coggeshell soon transferred into mine warfare and and boarded the USS Preble (DD-345). During the Pearl Harbor attack, the ship was in overhaul and unarmed. Coggeshell assisted the USS Cummings (DM-20) which needed help manning guns, and he also helped survivors of the USS West Virginia (BB-48) escape the fiery waters. But at the battle of Leyte Gulf, Coggeshell felt helpless when the ship could not stop for survivors of burning and sinking ships. Coggeshell was discharged as a chief watertender in August 1945, just days after the second atomic bomb was dropped. He later became an electrical engineer and worked on cruise missiles, the B2 bomber, and outer space weaponry.

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