OSU
History Minute - August 25, 2000
Number
10 of a 12 part series: Honoring Oregon Staters who
died in WWII
Benton
Hall artwork from The Beaver, 1928
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Of the many Oregon Stater familes who lost
loved ones during the war, it was the Ashcraft
family that suffered the most.
In all, three Ashcraft brothers, students
during the latter part of the Depression,
died during World War II, two in airplane
accidents and one in combat.
James Leland Ashcraft was a freshman
in forestry at OSC in 1934-35.
Little is known of him until February, 1944,
when he shows up as a sergeant in Co. C of
the 15th Infantry Division fighting in Italy.
He was killed in action on April 14, 1944,
after having returned from a hospital stay
to recover from wounds suffered at the front.
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Also a forester, brother Dean Bruner Ashcraft
(’41) was a lieutenant in the Navy who served
the first part of the war as a flight instructor
at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida.
In June, 1943, he was killed during a training exercise
with his students.
Kent Norman Ashcraft was also a lieutenant
in the Navy and also died in a non-combat related
airplane accident.
A PBY pilot and squadron commander, he was lost
in a routine flight between Baker Island and Canton
Island in the Pacific on Dec. 27, 1943.
He was the only one of the three who married, leaving
behind a three-year old daughter named Leola. His
major at OSC was education.
At various times prior to and during the war, the
Ashcraft family lived in Canyonville, Talent and
Glendale...all in Oregon.
--
By George
Edmonston Jr.
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