I don't know about the memory stuff -- coincidence? power of suggestion? -- who knows. But taking this child to a veterans' reunion smacks of circus sideshow to me. Even assuming Huston's spirit somehow is "within" little James, I don't think it's healthy to foster the idea that somehow he's really some other (dead) person come back to life. He's 6 yrs old, for pete's sake. If his interest in all this sticks, he can certainly wait til he's older and make his own decision about pursuing his "other life."
By STEVE SMITH, Times Staff Writer During that mission in March of 1945, Jack Larsen recalled, he felt like he could have "walked down" to the Japanese-held island below him on the streams of anti-aircraft fire which were coming up at him and the other planes making the attack.
Larsen, who now lives in Springdale, Ark., is the uncle of Butler County Sheriff Craig Murphy of El Dorado.
Tonight the author of a book now being written about the ship Larsen served on - one which went on to become of the most decorated ships in U.S. naval history - is scheduled to relate its story on national television.
It is one of the scheduled segments on ABC television's "Primetime Thursday," which airs at 9 p.m. on KAKE Channel 10.
Bruce Leininger, who lives in Lafayette, La., is writing "One Lucky Ship," the story of the USS Natoma Bay (CVE 62).
It's a project which Leininger said came about as the result of "past life" dreams his son began having shortly after his second birthday.
Those dreams would launch him on research which resulted in his discovery of the Natoma Bay - and as he learned more about the ship, he related, "I couldn't believe what I was reading.
"This was one of the most decorated ships in naval history, and no one knew anything about it."
The story of the Natoma Bay was so compelling, he said, that he wanted to do something as a tribute to the 21 men who were killed while serving aboard the ship during World War II.
Larsen (who grew up in the Kansas City, Kan. area and who logged some 60 missions during the war) flew in a squadron of FM2 Wildcat fighter planes based aboard the Natoma Bay.
One of those missions occurred on March 3, 1945, during the U.S. invasion of Iwo Jima in the South Pacific - and, Larsen said, he is now the last living fighter pilot who made that strike.
His target was Chi Chi Jima, which Larsen said contained a major communications facility for Japanese forces.
Also, Leininger said, there was concern about the possibility of ships which were in the harbor at Chi Chi Jima being used to resupply Japanese forces at Iwo Jima.
"We were loaded down with rockets, 250-pound bombs and a full amount of ammunition," Larsen recalled.
Larsen said eight fighter planes from the Natoma Bay made the attack on Chi Chi Jima.
Seven came back - and it was one shot down which Leininger said started him on his journey of research and writing.
Shortly after his son turned 2, he said, he started having recurring nightmares which he was able to articulate better after he had gotten a little older.
In those nightmares, he said, his son was in an airplane which had been shot down by the Japanese.
It had been flown off of an aircraft carrier, he said, and its engine was on fire as it went down.
After a two-year period of research (and after getting a little more information from his son) Leininger said he was able to identify one person whose personal details matched everything in his son's dreams - right down to the ship he was on and the time of the event in which he was shot down and killed.
That person, he said, was James McCready Houston, Jr., who had flown in the March 3, 1945 attack on Chi Chi Jima.
Leininger said his search for Larsen began as the result of his son mentioning the name "Jack" after awakening from one of his nightmares.
In September of 2002, he said, he traveled to California to attend an escort carrier reunion and discovered Jack Larsen was still living.
Leininger said he called Larsen from the reunion and drove to his house about a week and a half to two weeks after returning from the reunion.
Leininger said tonight's "Primetime" segment is also scheduled to include interviews with Houston's sister; the author of a book on the past lives of children; and the gunner in a TBC Avenger from another ship's squadron which flew in behind Larsen and Houston and who saw Houston's plane get hit.
Leininger said he has not yet contacted any prospective publishers, although there has been some interest expressed in having a manuscript of "One Lucky Ship" sent after he gets it finished.
Hopefully, he said, tonight's show will spark some interest among publishers.
Larsen (whose wife is the younger sister of Murphy's mother) said the Natoma Bay was one of the smaller, Kaiser-built "Jeep carriers" of World War II which were actually built on the hulls of freighters.
Larsen joined the Navy on June 6, 1942 and qualified for flight training.
He had turned 18 in November of 1941.
Larsen said his squadron's missions during World War II included flying combat air patrol at 20,000 feet over a fleet of four carriers (his ship was the admiral's flagship for the fleet).
It also provided cover for LST landing ships transporting troops making beach landings, he said, and provided close air support to strike such locations as machine gun nests.
"We strafed and bombed the beaches to keep their (the Japanese forces') heads down," he remarked.
Later on, he said, his squadron would hit designated inland "targets of opportunity."
Larsen spent 22 years in the Navy. After retiring from the military he worked in the enforcement division of the California State Board of Equalization before settling in Springdale.
Larsen said none of the "Jeep carriers" of World War II have been saved, having gone from mothballs to scrap.
In the case of the Natoma Bay, he said, it was being towed - to Japan - but "took a nose dive" before getting there.
http://www.eldoradotimes.com/articles/2004/04/16/news/news2.txt
Second Lives
Could a Little Boy Be Proof of Reincarnation?
April 15 — Nearly six decades ago, a 21-year-old Navy fighter pilot on a mission over the Pacific was shot down by Japanese artillery. His name might have been forgotten, were it not for 6-year-old James Leininger.
Quite a few people — including those who knew the fighter pilot — think James is the pilot, reincarnated.
James' parents, Andrea and Bruce, a highly educated, modern couple, say they are "probably the people least likely to have a scenario like this pop up in their lives."
But over time, they have become convinced their little son has had a former life.
From an early age, James would play with nothing else but planes, his parents say. But when he was 2, they said the planes their son loved began to give him regular nightmares.
"I'd wake him up and he'd be screaming," Andrea told ABCNEWS' Chris Cuomo. She said when she asked her son what he was dreaming about, he would say, "Airplane crash on fire, little man can't get out."
Reality Check
Andrea says her mom was the first to suggest James was remembering a past life.
At first, Andrea says she was doubtful. James was only watching kids' shows, his parents say, and they weren't watching World War II documentaries or conversing about military history.
But as time went by, Andrea began to wonder what to believe. In one video of James at age 3, he goes over a plane as if he's doing a preflight check.
Another time, Andrea said, she bought him a toy plane, and pointed out what appeared to be a bomb on its underside. She says James corrected her, and told her it was a drop tank. "I'd never heard of a drop tank," she said. "I didn't know what a drop tank was."
Then James' violent nightmares got worse, occurring three and four times a week. Andrea's mother suggested she look into the work of counselor and therapist Carol Bowman, who believes that the dead sometimes can be reborn.
With guidance from Bowman, they began to encourage James to share his memories — and immediately, Andrea says, the nightmares started become less frequent. James was also becoming more articulate about his apparent past, she said.
Bowman said James was at the age when former lives are most easily recalled. "They haven't had the cultural conditioning, the layering over the experience in this life so the memories can percolate up more easily," she said.
Trail of Mysteries
Over time, James' parents say he revealed extraordinary details about the life of a former fighter pilot — mostly at bedtime, when he was drowsy.
They say James told them his plane had been hit by the Japanese and crashed. Andrea says James told his father he flew a Corsair, and then told her, "They used to get flat tires all the time."
In fact, historians and pilots agree that the plane's tires took a lot of punishment on landing. But that's a fact that could easily be found in books or on television.
Andrea says James also told his father the name of the boat he took off from — Natoma — and the name of someone he flew with — "Jack Larson."
After some research, Bruce discovered both the Natoma and Jack Larson were real. The Natoma Bay was a small aircraft carrier in the Pacific. And Larson is living in Arkansas.
"It was like, holy mackerel," Bruce said. "You could have poured my brains out of my ears. I just couldn't believe it.
James 2 = James M. Huston Jr.?
Bruce became obsessed, searching the Internet, combing through military records and interviewing men who served aboard the Natoma Bay.
He said James told him he had been shot down at Iwo Jima. James had also begun signing his crayon drawings "James 3." Bruce soon learned that the only pilot from the squadron killed at Iwo Jima was James M. Huston Jr.
Bruce says James also told him his plane had sustained a direct hit on the engine.
Ralph Clarbour, a rear gunner on a U.S. airplane that flew off the Natoma Bay, says his plane was right next to one flown by James M. Huston Jr. during a raid near Iwo Jima on March 3, 1945.
Clarbour said he saw Huston's plane struck by anti-aircraft fire. "I would say he was hit head on, right in the middle of the engine," he said.
Treasured Mementos
Bruce says he now believes his son had a past life in which he was James M. Huston Jr. "He came back because he wasn't finished with something."
The Leiningers wrote a letter to Huston's sister, Anne Barron, about their little boy. And now she believes it as well.
"The child was so convincing in coming up with all the things that there is no way on the world he could know," she said.
But Professor Paul Kurtz of the State University of New York at Buffalo, who heads an organization that investigates claims of the paranormal, says he thinks the parents are "self-deceived."
"They're fascinated by the mysterious and they built up a fairy tale," he said.
James' vivid, alleged recollections are starting to fade as he gets older — but among his prized possessions remain two haunting presents sent to him by Barron: a bust of George Washington and a model of a Corsair aircraft.
They were among the personal effects of James Huston sent home after the war.
"He appears to have experienced something that I don't think is unique, but the way it's been revealed is quite astounding," Bruce said.
Asked if the idea that James may have been someone else changes his or his wife's feeling about their son, Bruce said: "It doesn't change how we think. I don't look at him and say, 'That's not my boy.' That's my boy."