Lee (Leilyn) Young

Looking for any information or anyone who might have known our uncle. Leilyn Young US Army, Ranger
We have a hand written journal that documents his training and service with the commando unit.

If anyone remembers our uncle we would enjoy any information you might have. His commando service was completely unknown to us until he passed away and we went through the household contents.
I will sent a link to anyone who would like to view photo's and/or read the journal.
Thanks
Lisa/Reggie McCollum
Midland, TX

We believe he might have been in one of the first units, training in Achnacarry (sp),,, He would have been one of 4 US Army officers to have gone through the training, so he could return and "train others".

I have attached a photo and an "excerpt" from his journal.

Howdy Ikmac,

I had the good fortune to visit Achnacarry in April and took some photos in the Spean Hotel museum. There was a document in one the showcases detailing the various units that attended the Commando training center. It does mention the Rangers amongst others but the records are from 1942 onwards.

Hope this helps in understanding your Uncles service..

See attached photo (best to enlarge to view)

Regards Vic

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 21/04/2010 07:33:57

I have been in touch with Lisa and she has kindly forwarded to me amongst other things a letter sent by Leilyn to his mother and father. The letter was taken back to the USA by a returning fellow US Ranger. It is an extremely interesting read of his journey from America to Ireland, then onto training at Lochailort and Achnacarry as well as other Combined Ops establishments, and then onto North Africa. Amongst the details he describes the toughness of the training at those establishments. I have posted it in our letters album on the following link. It is a long letter but a great read which I highly recommend all to do. My thanks to Leilyn's niece Lisa McCollum for sharing it with us. I will post some of the other items in due course :

http://www.commandoveterans.org/cdoGallery/v/documents/Letters/Leilyn+Young/