JOSEPH L. LACOMBE, LT, USN

Joseph Lacombe '33

Date of birth: May 17, 1909

Date of death: March 1, 1942

Age: 32

Lucky Bag

From the 1933 Lucky Bag:

JOSEPH LEER LaCOMBE, JR.

Opelousas, Louisiana

"Joe" "Uncle Joe" "Chief"

It was not because Joe lived by the sea nor because his grandfather was in the Navy that he came here; he merely thought it a good thing to do at the time. His inspiration has been a great boost to all those hide-bound members of the radiator club who love a good story and a good natured debate. Joe has identified himself with those liberals and free-thinkers who much prefer digging up a dust covered, moth-eaten, book in the library or reading an article dealing with sociology, politics, or world conditions to studying the next assignment in seamanship.

Joe comes from that beautiful and tolerant state of Louisiana and he has always loved to scoff at the liberal East and its blue laws. He will defend the political and social conditions of Louisiana against all comers.

If Joe remains in the Navy he will make an excellent officer because he never fails to come through in a pinch. He is an ideal pal to go ashore with whether it be to visit the Montmarte or attempt to an Annapolis tea room on a Saturday evening liberty. He has an even temper and a generous heart and he has been a sympathetic roommate.

2 P. O.

JOSEPH LEER LaCOMBE, JR.

Opelousas, Louisiana

"Joe" "Uncle Joe" "Chief"

It was not because Joe lived by the sea nor because his grandfather was in the Navy that he came here; he merely thought it a good thing to do at the time. His inspiration has been a great boost to all those hide-bound members of the radiator club who love a good story and a good natured debate. Joe has identified himself with those liberals and free-thinkers who much prefer digging up a dust covered, moth-eaten, book in the library or reading an article dealing with sociology, politics, or world conditions to studying the next assignment in seamanship.

Joe comes from that beautiful and tolerant state of Louisiana and he has always loved to scoff at the liberal East and its blue laws. He will defend the political and social conditions of Louisiana against all comers.

If Joe remains in the Navy he will make an excellent officer because he never fails to come through in a pinch. He is an ideal pal to go ashore with whether it be to visit the Montmarte or attempt to an Annapolis tea room on a Saturday evening liberty. He has an even temper and a generous heart and he has been a sympathetic roommate.

2 P. O.

Loss

Joseph was lost when USS Pecos (AO 6) was sunk by Japanese carrier-based aircraft on March 1, 1942.

Other Information

From the 1953 edition of the book "Double Three Roundup," published by the class of 1933:

Joe, being a member of 33'B, did not receive his commission until May, 1934. He then spent two years in the CHICAGO, followed by consecutive turns of duty in the ASTORIA, ANTARES, BADGER, NITRO and TENNESSEE. In 1939 he was ordered to the South China Patrol, serving first in the MINDANAO, then the MARBLE HEAD and finally the PECOS.
While serving in the PECOS, on 1 March 1942, Joe was officially reported as Missing in Action, when the PECOS was bombed by Japanese planes and sank in the open sea south of Java. For his gallantry in action on that fateful day, Joe was awarded the Silver Star Medal and a Commendation Ribbon. Joe was in charge of the anti-aircraft control party, and he continued directing their actions until the order to abandon ship, only 18 minutes prior to the sinking of the PECOS.
After Joe's death his widow, Johnnie Mae, who had been living in Santa Barbara, California, moved to New York. She and their daughter, Yolanda, who was born in August 1938, are living at apartment 33, 610 West 116th Street in New York City.

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Born Leer Joseph Lacombe, Jr., he also lived in Eunice and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He graduated from Baton Rouge high school in 1925. Voted: Best Looking. In the yearbook, As the Faculty Knows Them: Leer Lacombe. As They are: “Duck.” Pastime: Imitating Miss Pujol (foreign language teacher.) Weak Link: Opelousas. Greatest Achievement: Combing his hair. Ambition: To go back to Eunice. After graduating from high school, he attended Louisiana State University.
In late 1940, his wife and daughter Yolanda were evacuated from Hong Kong where he was stationed.
In August 1942, Joseph was given a commendation for meritorious action for directing anti-aircraft fire aboard ship against attacking Japanese planes.
He was survived by his mother Sallie; two sisters, Doris (Mrs. S. G. Dupre) and Janet (Mrs. Charles Parker;) and one brother, Lt. James L. Lacombe of the U.S. Army stationed at Camp Wallace, Texas.
His father was a bank cashier who died in 1921. In 1933, a 1902 series $20 bank note signed by him and one other was shown at a local Rotarian meeting. It measured 3 ¼ x 7 ½ inches and was issued when Teddy Roosevelt was president. The Eunice News of August 25, 1933, wrote: “With just a little meditation we can almost vision Leer Lacombe behind the old First National Bank teller’s window, smiling and greeting his legions of friends jocularly and with a heart overflowing with peculiar affection – a devotion as genuine as sunlight and heaven’s pure air.”

He had no listed next of kin, though he was married to Johnnie Mae on December 11, 1937. He has a memory marker in Idaho.

Photographs

From his high school yearbook

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.