Lee P. Ebner
Sea.2c

USN
USS West Virginia
1940-1941

Lee P. Ebner, born May 22, 1919, Pineville, KY, and enlisted in the USN at Louisville, KY in September 1940.  He was sent to the USNTS Great Lakes.  After five weeks he was shipped to Seattle, WA, to go aboard USS West Virginia.
     During the Pearl Harbor attack he was on the signal bridge.  Then he was assigned to the destroyer USS Mahan where he saw action in the Marshall and Gilbert Islands.  After the Santa Cruz air battle he left the Mahan on Dec. 7, 1942, for the destroyer Frankford and six months duty in the Atlantic, making two crossings.  Then he was assigned to the destroyer Newcomb and back to the Pacific for action in Saipan, Peleliu, Leyte Gulf, Luzon, Iwo Jima and the night torpedo attack in Surigao Straits.
     At Okinawa the Newcomb was destroyed by five suicide planes.  Still at Okinawa he was assigned to the destroyer Richard P. Leary and then to the destroyer Tender Dixie at Leyte.
     After the war he went to the USS Rockwall, taking part in the two Atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll.  He was discharged Nov. 15, 1946.
     He attended the Louisville Art Center, 1947-48; Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, 1949-50; worked for B.F. Goodrich Co., 1951-52; and for 32 years was a staff artist for the Louisville Courier Journal and The Louisville Times.  He taught cartooning for eight years at Bellermine College, Louisville and taught cartooning and gave talks at Louisville high schools.
     He and his wife, Wanda Rhea (Jenkins) have two children and one grandson.

Reprinted with permission from Turner Publishing.


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