Family Card - Person Sheet
Family Card - Person Sheet
NameLeslie Jay “Les” Carney161,162,159
Birth19 Apr 1911, Perry, Oregon163
Death11 Apr 1985, Palmdale, California163
Burial15 Apr 1985, Desert Lawn Mem. Park, Palmdale, California
FatherTheodore Carney (1885-1975)
Spouses
Birth19 Aug 1923, Hagerman, Gooding Co., Idaho
Death30 Oct 2018, Lancaster, Los Angeles Co., California160
BurialDesert Lawn Mem. Park, Palmdale, California
FatherJohn Winford Condit , 1648 34 (1884-1979)
MotherDelia Ida Bell Parks (1893-1928)
Marriage30 Nov 1948, Hagerman, Gooding Co., Idaho164,165
Notes for Leslie Jay “Les” Carney
Uncle Les was captured on Wake Island on June 6, 1942 and held at the Osaka Main Camp, Chikko Osaka 34-135 until Sep 13, 1945 when he was repatriated and released.166
My father Leslie Carney was captured by the Japanese on Wake Island before the US officially entered WWII. He was a POW for the entire war - almost 4 years until a week or so after the war ended. He was in a series of Japanese POW camps, first taken to Shanghai and a couple other Chinese cities which the Japanese controlled, and then camps in Japan itself such as those in Osaka and Tokyo, but both of those cities were bombed and burned so the POWs were moved. His last prison camp was Naoetsu. Naoetsu POW camp was featured in the Angelina Jolie directed movie “Unbroken” and dad remained at Naoetsu until the allies came in to drop food just after the war ended and then liberated them. Ironically and sadly one of his buddies was killed at the end of their long stay as a prisoners when our air force dropped cans of food on the camp to feed starving POWs and a can hit his friend on the head. After being freed, dad had to testify against a couple of the various POW camp commanders who were placed on the top 40 most wanted Japanese war criminals list by General Douglas MacArthur. The cruelest ones were executed. Dad didn’t hold a grudge against the lower level Japanese guards, or much the Japanese population in general; he said they suffered as much as he did and they didn’t want to be in a war any more than he did. Though dad was a man of my height (6’-1”), he had a stockier build yet he only weighed 90-some pounds when he was liberated. Therefore, he got Beriberi (from starvation) which led to a condition called Beriberi Heart which let to cardiac arrest in 1985. So in 1985 it could be said he passed away as a result of injuries resulting from WWII, surely one of that war’s later victims. The US government - after many decades - classified the few surviving private construction workers employed by Morrison Knudson to build a landing strip (but ended up defending Wake Island from the Japanese invasion) as “Members of the Navy” so they could receive treatment at VA Hospitals. Dad left “a treasure trove of experience to pass on” to us. We were lucky to have dad and mom both. What a time that generation had, yet they rolled with the punches - the Great Depression and then WWII. The Baby Boomers (us) are surely the spoiled-generation who had it pretty easy (growing up during this nation’s Golden Age). After dad’s experience as a starving & freezing POW he vowed to never leave this country again unless he could walk back, so the only times he traveled with us to other countries were to go to Tijuana to the south, or just over the Canadian border above Idaho and Washington State, so he could walk back over the border if necessary. That is why I (and other siblings) traveled the world with mom since dad wouldn’t leave the USA even though he loved to travel domestically. Dad was older when he became a father because he was out of circulation for a long time and got a late start at family life. As the oldest child of eight, during the Great Depression he had to leave home in his late-teens to “Ride the Rails” (freight-hopping) to find work to send money home to his family since the farm in Idaho could no longer make-ends-meet (like so many others during that time). One of the jobs he was able to get was working on Boulder Dam (later renamed Hoover Dam), as a cliff scaler (High-Scaler is the official term). He asked for any job on the dam and they said none were available, but then a cliff-scaler fell and died and the superintendent yelled… “You kid, get up on those ropes if you want a job”. Loose rocks had to be removed from the cliffs before the dam could be built so High-Scalers would hang off the cliffs on rope-chairs with a stick of dynamite and then use a hand-jackhammer drill to chip a hole in the rocks, then stick the dynamite in the hole and quickly kick away from the cliff before the explosion. Then they would chip off the broken rock in preparation for the dam. Most of us have surely seen Hoover Dam near Las Vegas and know how steep the cliffs are. He worked on Boulder (Hoover) Dam until he caught Polio. He was one of the lucky ones whose muscle function returned after about a year or so. Not too long after he recovered he was off to Wake Island where this story on the veterans and POWs of World War II began.167
Notes for Edith Lenore (Spouse 1)
After the death of her mother in 1928 she went to live with her Grandparents, John Henry Condit and Francis Parks, returning to her father’s household when he remarried.42
Last Modified 23 Dec 2022Created 16 Jan 2023 using Reunion for Macintosh
Created 16 Jan 2023 by David E. Condit with Reunion for the Macintosh

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