Interview with Donovan Leighton [2002]

Gary D. Rhay:

What we'll do first is we'll just -- 477th bomber --

Donovan Leighton:

Bomber squadron, yeah.

Gary D. Rhay:

Bomber squadron. And what was your rank? Highest rank you got to?

Donovan Leighton:

Staff sergeant.

Gary D. Rhay:

Okay. And when were you in the service?

Donovan Leighton:

Huh?

Gary D. Rhay:

When were you in the service?

Donovan Leighton:

From 1943 to '45.

Gary D. Rhay:

And you were down at -- in -- where -- where were you at? What bases were you at?

Donovan Leighton:

Well, first base, I was at Wichita Falls, Texas. And then at Freeman Field, Indiana.

Gary D. Rhay:

Okay. MALE VOICE: If you can, scoot a little more to your right.

Gary D. Rhay:

Okay. I forgot to ask you to say your name so we get it on the tape --

Donovan Leighton:

Okay.

Gary D. Rhay:

-- as well, so could you just tell me what your name is?

Donovan Leighton:

Donovan Leighton.

Gary D. Rhay:

Where were you born, Donovan?

Donovan Leighton:

I was born in Illinois. Aurora, Illinois.

Gary D. Rhay:

Whereabouts or when? When were you born? What's your birthday?

Donovan Leighton:

October the 20th, 1906.

Gary D. Rhay:

Gettin' a little old?

Donovan Leighton:

(laughter) Yeah. I'm 96.

Gary D. Rhay:

Well, tell me -- tell me about life as a young man in Illinois.

Donovan Leighton:

We didn't live in Illinois too much. My dad got a job in Des Moines, Iowa. And we lived there until -- oh, I was about 12 years old. My dad was a molder in a foundry, and he was very light-complected. And very often, he was taken for a white. And one day, he forgot his lunch. And my mother told -- gave me some carfare and told me to take his lunch down to him. I took the lunch down to the job. When I handed him his lunch, they looked at me and looked at him. And he lost his job. Then he heard about there's going to be a big foundry outside of Los Angeles. And he went down there and got a job in Los Angeles. Then sent for us. We moved in the outskirts of Hollywood. When I was ready to go to high school, I went to Hollywood High School. And to my amazement, I was the only black student at a student body of 2500 kids. And the only trouble I had was walking from my classroom over to the gym, just saying, "Hello. How are you?" (laughter) Yeah.

Gary D. Rhay:

Tell me about this -- this march when you were in the eighth grade. Tell me a little bit about that.

Donovan Leighton:

Oh. My dad was interested in politics. In 1920, there was a great effort to make women eligible to vote. So I was in the eighth grade, and I joined the march to the state capitol to press upon those legislators to ratify the 19th Amendment. As it turned out, it was little me that helped bring women out of the kitchen and gave them the right to vote. 1920.

Gary D. Rhay:

So you've been pretty active in politics ever since then also?

Donovan Leighton:

Indirectly, yeah, when I got out of the Army. During the Depression, I studied to be a physiotherapist. I was on the WPA, and I went to school at night and studied to be a physiotherapist. Took me about a year and a half to finish that course. And then when I finished it, I had to go down to city hall and take a examination to get my license. In Los Angeles, you had to have a license to practice physiotherapy. I got my license, eventually got a job at the Terry Hunt Health Club. That's what I was doing when the Japs bombed Pearl Harbor and started us in World War II. So in 1942, I was drafted. I was too old to be a pilot, so they sent me down to the Wichita Falls, Texas to learn how to be a bomber mechanic. It took me about a year down there. Then they -- I guess a dozen or so of us came up to Freeman Field, Indiana. There wasn't a plane or a soldier in sight. They had cleaned out the entire field. And I heard some music, way off in the distance. So when we got unpacked, I said, "Let's go" -- to a couple of guys, I said, "Let's go check out this music." We went over there, and just as we stepped in the door, the man throwed up both arms. He said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. You boys can't come in here. We don't have a colored USO here yet." And I looked behind him. The hostesses didn't have nobody else to dance with. They was dancing with German prisoners of war. Then the first class of bomber pilots came from Tuskegee, and there wasn't enough of them to make their complete crew, so the War Department brought back some fighter pilots from Europe, and they was going to make the transition from fighters to bombers. Well, they started to go to the officers club. Old Colonel Selway, the head of the field, no way these black officers could use the officers club. That went on for weeks. And finally, he put all -- over 100 black pilots under house arrest and moved us down to Godman's Field, Indiana. They stayed under house arrest. You couldn't leave the barracks for anything. They stayed under house arrest for weeks and weeks and weeks. And finally, the War Department took over the case and dismissed all the charges, and we started training again. My plane was flying morning, noon and night. They worked the hell out of the crew -- ground crew, trying to make up lost time for training. And we finally got packed up to go to Okinawa, and they dropped the bomb. A few weeks after those bombs were dropped, Japan surrendered. And that was the end of World War II.

Gary D. Rhay:

Well, you mentioned that, you know, they wouldn't let you dance in the USO club and that the officers had this problem with the officers club. When you were first drafted into the Army, did you encounter any other sorts of things like that?

Donovan Leighton:

Oh, they shipped us to Wichita Falls, Texas. That was my first experience with legal segregation. When the buses were on the base, they were -- they were not segregated. When the bus left the base, all the people got off and the blacks got in the back of the bus, and the whites stayed in the front of the bus. That was my first experience with legal segregation. I was down there for over a year. I never did go into town. We finished that course, and they send us up to Freeman Field, Indiana. You see, the Air Force was so highly segregated, that there wasn't any black pilots at all. And due to political pressure, President Roosevelt caused the -- the Air Force to stall a fire squadron. 1940. Then in 1942 during the election, political pressures made the Army and the Air Force consider having a medium bomber squadron. In '43, that's when I was drafted. I was mid-30s then. I was too old to be a pilot, so they sent me down to Wichita Falls, Texas to be a crew chief and a flight mechanic.

Gary D. Rhay:

How -- how difficult a plane was the B-25 to work on?

Donovan Leighton:

B-25 had two (inaudible) Wright(?) radials. It wasn't too difficult to work on, but with green pilots, it would sometimes cause a little trouble. I remember one time, the pilots took off and pulled the landing gear before he was completely airborne and bent one of the props on one of the engines. When you bend a prop on a radial engine, you've got to change the entire engine. (inaudible) night and day to change this engine. And in the meantime, Colonel Benjamin Davis had taken over this bomber squadron. I didn't know -- we were so busy, we didn't know all the politics that was going on. So the next morning, he come walking by and turned around and said to me, "Say, soldier, don't you know how to salute an officer?" Man, I started cussing and raising hell. He turned and looked at me. He shook his head and walked on. I thought I was going to get court-martialled for it, but nothing ever happened. I had been working all night long, changing this engine, and he come by -- see, we never did salute down on the line. Are you in the military?

Gary D. Rhay:

Yeah. Yeah, I flew for the Army.

Donovan Leighton:

Were you in the Air Force?

Gary D. Rhay:

No. I was in the Army.

Donovan Leighton:

Army?

Gary D. Rhay:

Yeah. I flew in a reconnaissance plane for the Army. We never saluted on a flight line either.

Donovan Leighton:

(laughter) Yeah. Then they finally got together and was all packed up to go to Okinawa, and they dropped the bomb. After that, Japan surrendered, and that was the end of World War II.

Gary D. Rhay:

Can you -- can you tell me -- you told me where you were when they bombed Pearl Harbor. Can you tell me about what happened, what changes went on in California after Pearl Harbor was bombed, what kind of things that people did to -- there was a time there where they thought the Japanese were going to come and invade the West Coast, so what kind of things did you see going on around you?

Donovan Leighton:

Oh, southern California was a very liberal part of the country. People were involved in the defense industry. I didn't notice any social problems there. So I was working at this health club when I was drafted.

Gary D. Rhay:

Was there a big -- a big boost in war industry after Pearl Harbor? Did they move a lot of soldiers in with things to defend the area?

Donovan Leighton:

Oh, I wasn't involved in too much in that after the war. I was involved -- you see, when I was in the Army, you had to have a license to practice physiotherapy. When I was in the Army, my license had expired, so when I got discharged, a couple of days after I got home, I was on my way downtown to renew my license, and I heard somebody hollering, "Hey, Don." I turned around. "Man, I'm sure glad to see you. Do me a favor, will you? My mother is sick in Texas, and I want to go see about her. Work in my place for a couple of weeks." I said, "Man, what kind of work you doin'?" "Oh, I'm working for a film producer, Brentwood. He's got two daughters. The main thing you've got to do is drive his daughters to school. Now, here's his phone number. Just tell him I had to go see about my mother." I said, "Just for two weeks?" He says, "Yeah." The next day, I called that number and got a hold of the secretary. And she made an appointment for me to come out and meet Mr. George Sherry(?). Man, I went out there. There was a huge home, two secretaries in the home, upstairs maid, cook, laundress. And there's all these people working there. I told Mr. Sherry, I said, "Man, I just got out of the Army. I don't know nothing about working in a big home like this." He says, "Well, don't let that worry you. Mimi(?) will show you what to do." Mimi was the cook. She showed me how to set the table, which side you serve the dessert on, which side you served an entrée on. And I stumbled around there for a while. And one day, I had to walk into the breakfast room. There was Mrs. Sherry, two secretaries and a nursemaid begging this little five-year-old boy to drink his milk. Mrs. Sherry said, "Donovan, Jeffrey won't drink his milk." I said, "What?" "Jeffrey won't drink his milk." I said, "Hand me one of them mugs. Pour me some of that white beer. Come on, Jeff. Let's drink this beer." And he drank every drop of it. That did it. I was there for almost 20 years. But that job -- he was a big fundraiser for the Democratic party. That job gave me the opportunity to have a conversation with Eleanor Roosevelt and five different Presidents. I was on a committee with Ronald Reagan when he was an active liberal Democrat. He was going to sign -- get people to sign a petition, trying to convince Attorney General Brown to run for governor. Brown was kind of reluctant to run because at that time, California had a popular Republican governor, Goodie Knight. And in 1939, the War Department thought it would be a good idea if the colleges and universities would include a preflight program creating a pool of potential pilots in case we entered the war. Ol' Hap Arnold, the head of the Army Air Force, said there was no need to include any black institutions. He said blacks could drive a team of mules. Hell, they can't fly airplanes. And she told me what she did. She told Franklin until Franklin insisted -- until Tuskegee Institute was included in this preflight program. And the rest is history.

Gary D. Rhay:

Do you think that ever would have happened without that kind of political pressure from Mrs. Roosevelt?

Donovan Leighton:

No. You know why Bush is Republican today?

Gary D. Rhay:

No.

Donovan Leighton:

See, the entire South had been solid Democratic ever since the Civil War. President Truman was vice president under Roosevelt. Roosevelt died in 1945, and he finished out his term. In 1946, he was running for reelection. And his daughter Margaret came to dinner, and somebody told him I was a Tuskegee Airman. He says, "Yeah. I heard about all of the trouble you fellows had. By God, if I win this election, I'm going to do something about it." In 1948, he issued Proclamation 9981 that desegregated the entire military force: Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force.

Gary D. Rhay:

Do you think that the conduct of the black units in World War II had something to do with that --

Donovan Leighton:

Oh, yeah. They made history. See, the Allies was trying to knock out Hitler's oil supply down in southern Europe. And they was sending fleets of bombers down there, trying to destroy his oil source. The 99th Fighter Squadron was assigned to protect those bombers. When they got the P-51s, black pilots started flying them like they play basketball. As it turned out, not a single bomber was lost due to enemy fighter planes. That's where they made their reputation.

Gary D. Rhay:

They had a distinctive marking, didn't they, on their planes that made them -- they could recognize those -- those fighters from way off?

Donovan Leighton:

Yeah. See, the Army force allowed these squadrons to paint certain things on there, identifications on the nose of the airplane. They used -- they painted the tails red. They called it red tails. Yeah. I was on a committee with Ronald Reagan when he was an active liberal Democrat. And my boss was responsible for him meeting Nancy and changing his politics. See, Reagan. When Jean(?) Herschel(?) died, Reagan became the head of the Screen Actors Guild. My boss was getting ready to make a picture starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. And he discovered they couldn't take a closeup of Katharine because she had facial tremors. And that kind of held up production. And then some talent scout told him about a actress in Chicago, had the same sounding voice and about the same appearance as Katharine. So MGM sent for her, gave her a screen test, and it turned out to be Nancy Davis. Now, in order for her to work in this picture, she had to join the Screen Actors Guild. That's how they met. And after they decided to get married, in order for Reagan to marry in this rich conservative Republican family, he had to change his politics. So overnight, he announced he was leaving the Democratic party and joining the Republican party. He was lucky. Brown had been elected governor twice and was running for his third term, but he did two things that caused his defeat. First term, he made all campuses of the University of California tuition-free. If you had the grades, you can enroll in the university just like they did in high school. And this free tuition encouraged a lot of radical students to take advantage of this free tuition and use the campuses to demonstrate their various causes. My son was in college at the time. A few weeks after he turned 17, he called me up. "Hey, Pops, I got a job." I said, "What kind of job you got?" "I'm a police trainee for the Berkeley Police Department." I said, "Man, that's a full-time job. How you going to take care of your subjects?" He said, "Well, they gave me the shift from 4 to 12. I can handle that." And he eventually got to be the radio dispatcher for the Berkeley Police Department. And it so happened he was the one that took the call when Patricia Hearst and her boyfriend was kidnapped. He told me he had to holler at the woman to calm her down so she would give the address. She kept hollering, "Send the police, send the police." Yeah, that job paid his way all through college and law school. The last semester in law school, he called me up, and he says, "I'm taking a leave of absence from the Berkeley Police Department. I'm going to work for the district attorney's office this summer, but there's no salary. I might need a little help." That was a smart thing for him to do because shortly after he graduated from law school, he was appointed deputy prosecuting attorney for Almeida County. Held that job until Proposition 13 was passed. Are you familiar with Proposition 13?

Gary D. Rhay:

Yes.

Donovan Leighton:

(laughter) The voters in California voted to lower the property taxes. The cities and counties had difficulty meeting their budget, so they started laying off people. Donnie called me up. He was afraid he was going to get laid off because he's still in his twenties, not married, no responsibility. And he was afraid he was going to get laid off. So he called me up. "Hey, Pops. I went over to San Francisco today and put my application in for the FBI." It took them three weeks. He was gone.

Gary D. Rhay:

Do you think that -- you know, from the time you were a young man and you took your lunch to your dad's work and they fired him for it because they found out he was black --

Donovan Leighton:

Yeah.

Gary D. Rhay:

-- to your son going to college and becoming a lawyer and now being in the FBI, is that a change that you could talk to us about in America that you've seen and lived through?

Donovan Leighton:

Oh, it was -- the Tuskegee Airmen caused a great change. I know you noticed they had a big holiday for -- what's her name?

Gary D. Rhay:

Martin Luther King?

Donovan Leighton:

Martin Luther King. But you know who created the greatest social change in the United States? President Truman. President Truman was vice president under Roosevelt. When he finished out his term in 1946, he was running for reelection. He and his daughter Margaret came to dinner. And somebody told him I was a Tuskegee Airman. He says, "Yeah. I heard about all the trouble you fellows had. By God, if I win this election, I'm going to do something about it." So in 1948, he issued Proclamation 9981 that desegregated the entire military force. Then the word got out. If you can fight and die together, you ought to be able to live together. Then the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in the public schools, universities and -- (Break in video.)

Gary D. Rhay:

Okay. So the Supreme Court outlawed all segregation?

Donovan Leighton:

Yeah. Old Governor Faubus was governor of Arkansas, sent the state troopers down there to prevent -- prevent any black children going into the high school of Little Rock, Arkansas. The President had to send federal troops down there to enforce the Supreme Court's decision. Governor Wallace said he personally was going to sit in the doorway of the University of Georgia to prevent any black students from enrolling. So the President had to send federal troops down there to enforce the Supreme Court's decision. Then the entire South fell out with the Democratic party. Newt Gingrich -- you ever hear of him? -- led the entire South into the Republican party. That's why Bush is a Republican. In those days, if Bush ran as a Republican, he couldn't even be elected dogcatcher. (laughter) Yeah. That's why today a lot of Southern senators and representatives are Republican.

Gary D. Rhay:

Let's have -- let's go back to Freeman Field for a minute.

Donovan Leighton:

Yeah.

Gary D. Rhay:

Let's talk a little bit more about the -- the restrictions that they placed on you not being able to go places and what you guys decided to do about it.

Donovan Leighton:

Well, when the government sent those -- overseas to those fighter pilots, to make bomber pilots out of them, they tried to go to the officers club. And old Colonel Selway said no way they're going to let these black officers in the officers club. So he took the NCO officers and tried to make a officer club for the black officers. And the black officers wouldn't even use it. And he kept finding -- he had so much trouble, he called this -- all the black officers together and tried -- and gave them an order to sign this statement that they wouldn't attempt to enter the officers club. Over 100 pilots. And not a single one would sign. Then he read the Article of War to them. The Article of War stated if you -- if you refuse to obey -- obey a superior officer in time of war, you could be punished by death. Again, not a single officer would sign. That's when he put them all under arrest and shipped us all down to Godman Field, Kentucky. And the officers and the pilots were confined to the barracks. They couldn't even go to the PX or post office. They were strictly under house arrest. This went on for weeks. And finally the War Department took over the case, dismissed the charges. That's when we started flying morning, noon and night, trying to make up for lost time. And when we's all packed up to go to Okinawa, that's when they dropped the bomb. And a few -- a few weeks after those bombs were dropped, Japan surrendered. That was the end of World War II.

Gary D. Rhay:

While all the pilots were under house arrest, what about you and the rest of the ground crew?

Donovan Leighton:

Only the pilots was under house arrest.

Gary D. Rhay:

What -- what were you guys doing?

Donovan Leighton:

We was just standing around. You couldn't fly. All the planes is grounded. We was just standing around, waiting for some decision. That's when the War Department put Colonel Davis in charge of the bomber squadron. When they started flying again, one of them green pilots took my plane up and released the landing gear a little bit before he was completely airborne and bent one of the propeller tips on one of the engines. When that happened on the rear landing, you've got to change it. I'd been working all night long, changing this engine, and Colonel Davis come walking by and turned around and said to me, "Soldier, don't you know how to salute an officer?" And I started yelling and cursing. (laughter) He looked at me and so surprised and walk -- shook his head and walked on. I thought I was going to get court- martialled for it, but nothing ever happened. He was a West Point cadet, strictly military. You didn't salute no officers down on the line.

Gary D. Rhay:

Other than that, was he pretty good commander?

Donovan Leighton:

Huh?

Gary D. Rhay:

Other than that one incident, was he pretty good officer?

Donovan Leighton:

Yeah. He was a good officer. You had to toe the line in dress and everything. Strictly West Point.

Gary D. Rhay:

How -- how was things between you and the white soldiers that were around? Was that okay?

Donovan Leighton:

We were so highly segregated, there wasn't many white soldiers around. The only white soldiers were instructors. No. We wasn't -- the Army was highly segregated in those days. The only white soldiers were instructors we came in contact with.

Gary D. Rhay:

And you came from southern California and a high school where things were pretty okay for you.

Donovan Leighton:

Yeah.

Gary D. Rhay:

And you come into this thing. That's quite a change.

Donovan Leighton:

Quite adjustment to make. Yeah. Well, the Army was an adjustment to make, too. Yeah. Have you ever been to Los Angeles?

Gary D. Rhay:

Yes. Only -- only a couple times. It's not my favorite town.

Donovan Leighton:

(laughter)

Gary D. Rhay:

Too big.

Donovan Leighton:

Too big. That's why I came to Oregon when I retired. I got tired of the -- you had to fight traffic to even go to the grocery store. So I came to Oregon. I says I was going to coast the rest of the way.

Gary D. Rhay:

You think it -- you think it's important for people to talk about their experiences? You know, you telling us about these things. You're the only one that can tell us about what went on. I mean, you think that's important for people to share what they've seen and done in their lives?

Donovan Leighton:

Well, yes. But things have changed quite a bit since those days. You've got to judge a person by their personality and character rather than skin color. It changed my politics a lot. I think we're making a big mistake trying to invade Iraq. It's going to turn into a religious war. I've been reading the Kabbalah. You ever read -- you familiar with the Kabbalah?

Gary D. Rhay:

No. I've done a little reading in the Koran, but I've never -- never looked in the Kabbalah.

Donovan Leighton:

Kabbalah is the Jewish Bible. It's a little different from the Christian Bible. It got me to believing that we all were created by the Creator. Therefore, we should all live our lives in a way that will fulfill His wishes and His efforts. The Kabbalah is very comprehensive. It makes us all citizens of the Creator. And (inaudible) religion as conceived and practiced is too divisive.

Gary D. Rhay:

Well, is -- like judging people by the color of their skin --

Donovan Leighton:

Well, not only that, but what they believe in. Religion primarily is a product of ethnic, cultural, environmental influences. That's why there isn't any religion that is universal as being. Religion is influenced by the environment that people live in.

Gary D. Rhay:

So you think America is -- I mean, we got problems still, but you think overall, we're going the right direction? Are you more -- you happier with America than when you were an eighth grader?

Donovan Leighton:

Oh, yeah. But we're making a big mistake overlooking the fact that we all were created by the Creator.

Gary D. Rhay:

Maybe if people had thought that way all along, we wouldn't have had all this trouble and hoop-de-rah getting -- getting people treated right.

Donovan Leighton:

Yeah. That's right.

Gary D. Rhay:

Well, is there anything else you wanted to talk about, about when you worked for the gentleman and you met all these people and --

Donovan Leighton:

Well, that's about all. That's what brought me to Oregon. Between the movie industry and Democratic politics, I was working morning, noon and night. Yeah.

Gary D. Rhay:

Okay. We'll -- we'll call it a -- (End of interview)