Leslie Ray Farrow
Aviation Machinist’s Mate First Class Leslie R. Farrow Jr., U.S. Navy. Awards: Purple Heart. He lived at 529 Newton Avenue, Camden NJ. Buried at Lakeview Memorial Park, Section 123, Plot G-433, Route 130, Cinnaminson NJ. Leslie R. Farrow grew up in this house at 529 Newton Avenue, Camden NJ (photo December 8, 2002).
Aviation Machinist’s Mate First Class Leslie R. Farrow Jr. was born on July 22, 1923 to Leslie R. and Nellie M. Farrow. The elder Farrow had served in the navy for eight years, and had seen action in the 1915 naval expedition to Veracruz, Mexico. Leslie Farrow Sr. worked as an engineer for the Camden city water department, and was active in the Masons.
Leslie Ray Farrow Jr. was the fourth of six children, coming after Geraldine, Philip, and Jesse C., and before George and Evelyn. The Farrow family lived at 529 Newton Avenue in Camden. Five doors down, at 519 Newton, lived former major league third-baseman Ed Lennox, brother of John Lennox, the Chief of Camden’s Fire Department from 1932 until his death in 1947. Leslie Farrow attended Camden High School, where he played football and basketball. He enlisted in the United States Navy in May of 1941, and was sent overseas on December 8, 1941, one day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
Leslie Farrow served as a tail-gunner on Navy bombers. He was aboard the USS Lexington when it was torpedoed on May 8, 1942, during the Battle of the Coral Sea. He survived a crash on an island and was wounded once in combat. He was grounded after an accident and sent back to the United States to serve as a gunnery instructor at the Naval Air Base in Jacksonville FL. He had flown 76 missions in the South Pacific in 34 months, serving as an aerial gunner on “Avenger” torpedo-bombers.
Leslie Farrow was home on leave, when he was killed in a car accident on July 21, 1945. He would have been 22 the next day. His father, Leslie Farrow Sr., had passed away September 26, 1942. He was survived by his mother, brother Philip, of 219 S. 6th Street in Camden, brother Jesse of the Newton Avenue address, and sisters. He was buried alongside his father, in the Masonic section of Lakeview Memorial Park in Cinnaminson NJ. His mother passed in 1967, and they all rest together.
Camden Youth, 18, Ate Ice Cream As USS Lexington Sank
Camden Courier-Post —
Leslie Farrow, Jr., Tells How Gunners Got 34 of 36 Jap Planes
By A. CHARLES COROTIS
Thirty-six Jap planes attacked the USS Lexington on that fateful morning six weeks ago when the gallant old carrier received its death blow, and the result was a thunderous cacophony of booming bombs, exploding torpedoes, shrieking bomber dives, machine gun strafing and failing antiaircraft “flak” that at least one 18-year-old youth never will forget.
The boy sat in the safety and quiet of the living room of his parents’ home at 529 Newton avenue yesterday and recalled the tumult while bullets passed within inches of his steel-helmeted head and a big bomb landed with a terrific impact across the deck from his own station.
But when young Leslie R. Farrow, Jr., spoke of that epic Coral Sea battle, it wasn’t with thankfulness for his own narrow escape, nor yet regret for the loss of his ship.
Gets 34 of 36 Planes
“There were 36 of those babies that came after us, and only one or two got away,” he said grimly between close-pressed lips, and with genuine satisfaction.
“I’m telling you, that was a sight, those devils falling into the water with a crash. Not that the Lexington got them all,” he hastened to add. “The other gunners in our fleet unit did their share too.”
Well, now that he had had a taste of real action, what did young Leslie Farrow, seaman first class, want to do now?
“I want to get back in the Pacific, get on a carrier and see some more Jap planes,” he said quietly. And the way he said it convinced you that here was no mere bravado: here was a chap who knew he had a job to do, and the quicker it was done the better all you.
“You’d better get back,” said his father, “I want me one of those little yellow fellows for a houseboy.”
Father Navy Man
Young Farrow comes by his seafaring urge naturally. His father was in the Navy eight years, and saw action at Vera Cruz during a certain little disagreement with Mexico.
“But maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned it,” he laughed. “There weren’t any detail or lightning divebombers in those days. That was pretty tame stuff compared to a present air-sea scrap.”
An older brother, Philip H., 26, is an apprentice seaman with the Coast Guard. He’s the husky who used to bowl over gridiron opposition of Woodrow Wilson high school’s football teams some years back.
The oldest boy, Jesse, the huskiest of the lot, tried to enlist in the Navy too, but they said one eye wasn’t good enough. About the time he decided to upset family tradition and join the less-fastidious Army, his superiors at New York Ship learned of his intentions and insisted he was needed too badly on war production.
So Les, former Camden High basketball star, who enlisted in the Navy May 7, 1941, at the ripe old age of 17, is seeing enough action to make up for Jess, too. He’s home on a brief furlough now, and his hardest job is to convince his mother that she shouldn’t worry about him while he’s away.
No Word for Weeks
“How can you keep from worrying,” demands Mrs. Farrow, “when you know the Lexington has been sunk and for four weeks you don’t hear a word from your son, or a word about him.”
How Mrs. Farrow knew about the Lexington’s fate a month before its sinking was announced officially must remain a secret, but her boy showed justification for the Government’s delay in making announcements when he said the Japs were scouring the seas for the stricken Lexington for days after it was already at the bottom of the Pacific.
Undoubtedly one of the youngest men aboard the carrier, Les’ observations of his first battle (and what a battle!) might be summed up thus:
Five torpedoes and two bombs smashed home on the Lexington. All the danger wasn’t ended. One bomb which struck on anti-aircraft ammunition on the port side causing explosions and fires which disrupted the pressure system.
Tried to Make Port
Some of the Lexington’s planes escaped to other carriers (their identity is a military secret) but many went down with the ship because there was no pressure to fill their gas tanks. The pumps were wrecked. The number lost also is a secret.
The Lexington tried to make port, but the proud craft which had achieved a speed of 40 knots an hour in a record run from San Pablo to Hawaii and normally could do 35 without effort, couldn’t go above 23.
At 5 p.m., six hours after the attack, the order came to abandon ship. “I took off my shoes, made sure life-jacket was on o.k., slid a rope into the water and swimming as fast as I could, in case the Lex decided to go quicker than we expected,” he recalled.
What did he do while awaiting word to leave the ship? Eat ice cream. “It seemed a shame to let that nice cream go down melt.” He only ate a pint, though. “I knew I’d have to do some swimming soon,” he smiled.
Hitch Hiked to Save Fare
Neither did he think it worth mentioning that he had walked and hitchhiked many miles out of his way to save, as he thought, part of the railroad fare, only to find when he got there that the fare was $20 higher from his destination. But Leslie Sr., who had to wire him the money, thought it most definitely was part of the whole episode.
There was one thing about the battle that irked young Farrow, and he said his shipmates felt the same way.
“It’s that reporter fellow, Johnson,” he declared, referring to a United Press newsman who was on the Lexington. “He’s called the jinx reporter, and not for nothing. He was on the Repulse when that British battleship was sunk, too, and I’m telling you, those of us who were on the same transport with him coming to San Diego kept our fingers crossed and our life-jackets adjusted all the way. I hope he picks a different ship than mine next time.”
Real Kick
“After you get over that emptiness in your stomach that comes with the start of the battle, it’s a real kick,” he said. “One minute you’re cursing the Japs for strafing the decks with machine guns, and the next you’re grinning in satisfaction as the plane plummets into the water. But you’re really in the thick of things.”
Les was only 17 when he enlisted over a year ago and went to Newport, R.I., for training. On his 18th birthday, July 22, he left for San Diego. A week after Pearl Harbor he left for that Hawaiian base, arriving Dec. 24. On April 8 he was transferred to the Lexington. On May 7 the carrier’s aircraft sighted a Jap fleet. At 11 o’clock the next morning the Nipponese bomber squadron attacked the Lexington. Before dark that night the big carrier was on the bottom.
As for future plans, Les knows only that his furlough ends Sunday and he reports back to San Diego. Where he goes from there, and on what ship, and what future experiences are in store for him, all he says, “In the laps of the gods and the Navy Department.”
Sailor Dies, 2 Hurt As Auto Overturns
Camden Courier-Post —
Soldier and Civilian in Hospital After Accident on River Road
A sailor is dead and two companions are in Cooper hospital, one critically injured, after a car in which they were riding left River road in Pennsauken and overturned five or six times early today.
The dead man, tentatively identified as Aviation Machinist mate 1-c Leslie R. Farrow, 22, of 529 Newton avenue. Attaches at the hospital said they had been unable to learn his address or his age.
Admitted to the hospital in critical condition with a head injury is Russell R. Preston, 25, of 5536 Woodland avenue, Pennsauken. Police said he was driving the car.
Pfc. Orlando Barlow, 23, of 619 Pine street, was being treated for a back injury. Barlow is on a 17-day furlough from his Army post.
Police said they learned the three men were enroute to Camden from Delair when the car left the road after it passed the Thirty-ninth street crossing of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It overturned five or six times, throwing the three passengers clear of the wreckage, police said.
The injured were taken to the hospital in the Good Samaritan First Aid and Emergency Squad with the aid of Pennsauken police.
Rites Wednesday For Leslie Farrow
Camden Courier-Post —
Veteran Who Survived Sinking of Lexington Killed in Auto Crash
Services for AOM 1/C Leslie R. Farrow, 529 Newton avenue, who survived the sinking of the airplane carrier Lexington and was killed in an automobile accident Saturday morning, will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home of Joseph H. Murray and Son, 408 Cooper street.
The young aviator’s log showed he had flown 76 missions in the South Pacific in 34 months. He was rescued from the sinking Lexington on May 8, 1942, cracked up on an island and was wounded another time. He served as a tail gunner.
Had Farrow lived until yesterday he would have been 22. His relatives and friends had planned a birthday party in his honor.
Flying across country last night to attend the funeral was one of his brothers, Jesse, who is serving in the Navy and is stationed in California. He had reached Nashville, Tenn., last night. Another brother, Philip H., Coast Guardsman, stationed at Baltimore, also has arrived home. He also is survived by his mother, Mrs. Nellie M. Farrow, and a sister, Mrs. Geraldine Broadwater, of Camden.
He was home on leave from the Naval Air Base at Jacksonville, Fla., where he served as a gunnery instructor. He was grounded after his accident in the Pacific and sent to this country as an instructor. He formerly played basketball and football at Camden High school. He enlisted in May, 1941, and went overseas Dec. 8, 1941.
He was killed and two companions injured early Saturday when an automobile overturned five or six times on River road in Pennsauken township a short distance from the grade crossing of the Pennsylvania railroad. The injured were Russell R. Preston, 25, of 5536 Woodland avenue, Pennsauken, driver of the car, who received head injuries, and Pfc. Orlando Barlow, 23, of 619 Pine street, who is at Tilton General hospital, Fort Dix, suffering from back injuries. Preston is in Cooper hospital.
His Brother, Jesse C. Farrow
Jesse C. Farrow, brother of Aviation Machinist’s Mate First Class Leslie Ray Farrow Jr.
His Sister, Geraldine Farrow — 1933
Geraldine Farrow, sister of Aviation Machinist’s Mate First Class Leslie Ray Farrow Jr., 1933.
Lakeview Memorial Park, Cinnaminson NJ
Leslie Farrow rests with his parents at Lakeview Memorial Park, Cinnaminson NJ.