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Leland Chase
August 12, 1916 - January 13, 2002
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Veteran Story
Navy
My late father, Leland Preston Chase (SPHS ’34) enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1941. He was living (after college, USC ’38) in Manila, Philippines, He completed officers candidate school at the Naval base at Subic Bay. When he was captured in December, 1941 by the invading Japanese army he held the rank of ensign. After serving for 3 ½ years in a Japanese prison camp, he was liberated by U.S. Forces. For his service, he was awarded the discharge rank of Lt. Commander. Dad was shortly thereafter recruited by the Navy to serve in Naval intelligence in Washington D.C. but turned the offer down. I might have been a Navy brat! Dad never spoke about being a POW until quite late in life. As far as we kids knew, he never harbored anger or resentment, but had an enduring love for his country, which he expressed throughout his life in word and deed. I consider my father to be, in his selfless and quiet way, an American hero.
Submitted by: Eric D. Chase SPHS ’67
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Eric Chase (1967)
Leland Preston Chase was "seeing the world" after graduation from USC in 1938, and he had made it to Manila, Phillippines by 1941, where he was working at a paper factory during the day and broadcasting the news in English on a local radio station at night. When the war in Europe broke out Lee enlisted in the U.S. Navy and completed officer's candidate school in the Phillippines. He was then made an Ensign in the Navy Reserves. In December 1941 the Japanese overran Manila, just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They kicked in the door of his apartment, and forced him at bayonet point into a prison camp as a civilian, having never noticed the U.S. Navy uniform hanging in the closet. Lee spent the next 31/2 years in captivity. He was liberated in 1945 by U.S. Forces at Los Banos, Phillippines, weighing just 110 lbs., but still standing 6 feet tall. Many Americans and Europeans died in captivity there, of starvation and disease. Dad always carried the Phillippine people in his heart. The locals braved death throughout the war, tossing bundles of food and supplies over the twin fences in the night, right under the machine guns in the towers, to aid the starving prisoners. Lee passed away in 2002, leaving behind his loving wife of 53 years, Helen. Lee was a patriot to the end, and my hero. Eric Chase '67