Biographical/historical information

Lt. Commander Landreth, a member of the USNA Class of 1941, served in the NEVADA, the ALABAMA, the BORUM, and the SARATOGA during World War II. He resigned his Navy commission in 1948.

Scope and arrangement

During the first interview session Mr. Landreth discusses his youth in Whittier, California, and his involvement in acting and wrestling as a teenager. He describes his experiences at the U.S. Naval Academy as a wrestler and as editor of the Lucky Bag. He covers his assignment to the USS NEVADA in the spring of 1941 and his involvement in the ships fate during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. World War II experiences described include the repair of the NEVADA, the construction of the USS ALABAMA, task force duty in the North Atlantic, search duty for German capital ships, assignment to the USS BORUM, and destroyer escort duty in the Atlantic prior to the Normandy invasion.

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of John L. Landreth

Processing information

Encoded by Apex Data Services

Copyright notice

Repository does not own copyright to the oral history collection. Permission to cite, reproduce, or broadcast must be obtained from both the repository and the participants in the oral history, or their heirs.

Metadata Rights Declaration

General note

1941-1944

Key terms

Personal Names

Landreth, John L., 1917-

Corporate Names

Nevada (Battleship)
United States Naval Academy--Wrestling

Topical

Destroyer escorts
Pearl Harbor (Hawaii), Attack on, 1941
World War, 1939-1945--Campaigns--Atlantic Ocean
Wrestlers--California--Whittier

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