The Colony community has lost Hal LeDuc who passed away Feb. 17, 2016, at age 93.
LeDuc, a WWII hero who distinguished himself as a U.S. Army Air Corps bomber pilot, shared memories of growing up in Anaheim at his son Mike’s funeral service in 2014. All three of his children are Anaheim High graduates including Jim from Class of ’63; Mike, Class of 65; and Dena, Class of ’77.
In an interview conducted by the AHS Alumni Association, LeDuc shared that he was born Nov. 22, 1922, in a home on the north side of the 1400 block of Lincoln. He remembered the Fluor family living nearby, as well as the Karchers and Dr. Utter, who lived in a two-story home at Lincoln and Ohio.
Hal’s dad was a citrus rancher and his family moved from the Colony to an acreage located at Placentia Avenue and State College. Their address was Route 4, Box 41.
Hal had his driver’s license by age 14 and recalled driving with his father to the mid-west. During the trip in a Model-A Ford soft-top coupe purchased for $150, LeDuc said they had to deal with 22 flat tires and a swarm of locust.
Life at Anaheim High was a happy time for LeDuc. He was a star tennis player throughout his four years at Anaheim. He won the Sunset League Double Tennis CIF championship in his junior and senior years, as well as several other tennis contests. He was also a member of the Hi-Y and the Varsity A Club during his time at Anaheim and played basketball.
A shadow was cast on his life with the advent of WWII. Hal talked about losing his friend John Minogue, the first Anaheim boy killed in WWII. Minogue, who was four years older than Hal and lived on the 600 block of Claudina, lost his life during a mission on Aug. 1, 1943 to bomb Romania’s Ploesti oil refinery, which was occupied by Nazi Germany.
“It turned out the raid wasn’t the surprise they thought it was. The Germans knew they were coming,” said LeDuc, who added that the mission was deemed a success, even though 54 of the 177 bombers that took part were lost, including the plane piloted by 2nd Lieutenant Minogue.
LeDuc fought as a tail gunner in the Pacific Theater with the US Army Air Corp, 5th Air Force, 380th Bomb Group, 529th Bomb Squadron from February 1943 to December 1945. A staff sergeant, LeDuc flew 25 missions, taking off and landing on a crude runway hacked out of the jungle. As a newspaper article about LeDuc documented (see below), he had several close calls but came home to take up residence again in Anaheim.
He married his first wife Doris and raised his family at a home on Birchmont Drive. Doris passed away from cancer in 1976. He then married Carol Young and their combined families included eight children, 23 grand-children and 11 great-grandchildren.
