Soul Survivor: The Reincarnation of a World War II Fighter Pilot Read online

  Copyright © 2009 by Andrea Leininger and Bruce Leininger

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Grand Central Publishing

  Hachette Book Group

  237 Park Avenue

  New York, NY 10017

  Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com.

  www.twitter.com/grandcentralpub

  First eBook Edition: June 2009

  Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  ISBN: 978-0-446-55084-0

  Contents

  COPYRIGHT

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  FOREWORD

  PART ONE: The Dream

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  PART TWO: The Ship

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  PART THREE: The Men of Natoma Bay

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  EPILOGUE

  Dedicated to Natoma Bay CVE-62, ship’s company, squadrons VC-63, VC-81, VC-9, and the men who gave their lives for our freedom:

  Ruben Iven Goranson, February 7, 1944, TBM Pilot, Ensign, VC-63

  Eldon R. Bailey, February 7, 1944 TBM Aviation Ordnanceman, 3rd class, VC-63

  Edward B. Barron, February 7, 1944, TBM Aviation Radioman, 2nd class, VC-63

  Edmund Randolph Lange, April 14, 1944, FM-2 Pilot, Lt. (junior grade), VC-63

  Adrian Chavannes Hunter, October 19, 1944, FM-2 Pilot, Lt., VC-81

  Leon Stevens Conner, October 25, 1944, TBM Pilot, Lt. (junior grade), VC-81

  Donald “E” Bullis, October 25, 1944, TBM Aviation Radioman, 3rd class,VC-81

  Louis King Hill, October 25, 1944, TBM Aviation Machinist Mate, 2nd class, VC-81

  Edward J. Schrambeck, October 26, 1944, TBM Aviation Radioman, 3rd class, VC-81

  Walter John Devlin, October 26, 1944, FM-2 Pilot, Ensign, VC-81

  Billie Rufus Peeler, November 17, 1944, FM-2 Pilot, Ensign, VC-81

  Lloyd Sumner Holton, November 17, 1944, Engineering Officer, Ensign, VC-81

  George Hunter Neese, January 6, 1945, TBM Aviation Machinist Mate, 3rd Class, VC-81

  John Frances Sargent Jr., January 6, 1945, FM-2 Pilot, Lt. (junior grade), VC-81

  James McCready Huston Jr., March 3, 1945, FM-2 Pilot, Lt. (junior grade), VC-81

  Peter Hamilton Hazard, March 27, 1945, TBM Pilot, Lt. (junior grade), VC-9

  William Patrick Bird, March 27, 1945, TBM Aviation Radioman, 1st class, VC-9

  Clarence Edward Davis, March 27, 1945, TBM Aviation Ordnanceman, 1st class, VC-9

  Richard Emery Quack, April 9, 1945, FM-2 Pilot, Ensign, VC-9

  Robert William Washburg, April 9, 1945, FM-2 Pilot, Ensign VC-9

  Loraine Alexander Sandberg, June 7, 1945, Ship’s company, Lt. (junior Grade)

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Having never attempted to write a book before, nothing could have prepared us for the sheer volume of work that goes into such a venture. Soul Survivor is the culmination of four years of research, tens of thousands of miles of travel, and over a year of writing, and none of this could have been accomplished without the help of some very special people. We would like to acknowledge and extend our heartfelt gratitude to those who have made the completion of Soul Survivor possible.

  Al Zuckerman and Writers House: Your expertise, guidance, and support throughout this process have been invaluable. Thank you for leading us through this complicated process and for protecting our best interests every step of the way.

  Ken Gross: Your ability to combine our version of events and spin them into a captivating and compelling narrative is a true testament to your amazing gift and undeniable talent. This year was an amazing roller coaster of emotions, temperaments, and uncontrolled laughter. We will fondly remember this experience all the days of our lives.

  Carol Bowman: Your amazing book Children’s Past Lives ignited our journey into unraveling James’s nightmares, and it led to a long and wonderful friendship. Thank you for remaining available for support and advice, for your beautifully written foreword, and for putting us in the extremely capable hands of Al Zuckerman.

  Natalie Kaire and Grand Central Publishing: for taking a chance on two unknown authors, and explaining everything we never knew about the publishing world.

  Anne Huston Barron: for not hanging up on us the night we told you about James’s memories, and for welcoming all of us into your life. We are so blessed to have been able to share this experience with you.

  Bobbi Scoggin, Jennifer Cowin, and Becky Kyle—“The Panel”: for the thousands of phone calls, endless investigating, researching, troubleshooting, evaluating, and fact-finding. This book would not have been possible without the Scoggin girls’ “need to know everything” approach to life’s mysteries.

  John Dewitt: for providing us with all the videotapes, documents, photos, microfilm, logbooks, and countless other pieces of information about Natoma Bay, which established the foundation for the research that verified James’s memories.

  Al Alcorn, Leo Pyatt, and the members of the Natoma Bay Association: for your continuous support and tireless efforts in encouraging our research and embracing both our family and James’s story. Natoma Bay and the men who served aboard her will not be forgotten. We cherish our memories of each of you and the special place that you occupy in our hearts.

  We would like to extend a special thank-you to the families of the twenty-one men killed in service aboard Natoma Bay. By sharing your stories, photos, cherished personal documents, letters, and personal artifacts, these men came to life again for both us and the readers of Soul Survivor. Their sacrifice to preserve our freedom is one for which we are eternally thankful. Each of them were special men whom we have come to know and admire through your thoughtful efforts. We are not finished telling their stories.

  Lastly, our son, James Leininger: Thank you for choosing us, and for leading us on such an amazing and unexpected journey. We hope you always have the courage of conviction to speak out about what you are experiencing, and to trust what you know is true in your heart—even when others around you may be in doubt. We love you and remain in awe of your amazing spirit and tender heart.

  FOREWORD

  The story of James Leininger is the best American case of a child’s past life memory among the thousands I’ve encountered. It’s extraord
inary because little James remembers names and places from his past life that can be traced to real people and actual events—facts that can easily be verified. He was even reunited with people who knew him in his former life as a World War II pilot.

  I believe this is the story that finally will open the minds of skeptical Westerners to the reality of children’s past life memories. This book demonstrates how these memories can have profound emotional and spiritual benefits for both the child and family.

  In some ways, James’s story is not unusual. Many children all over the world have past life memories. It’s a natural phenomenon. I know this because I began collecting and researching these cases more than twenty years ago after my own two children had their own vivid past life memories. My son remembered dying on a Civil War battlefield; my daughter remembered dying as a child in a house fire. I was astonished when I observed that just by talking about their memories they were both cured of phobias stemming from their past life deaths.

  Surely, I concluded, this had happened to other families, too. But when I searched through books to understand what was going on with my children, I couldn’t find any that addressed the healing effects of children’s past life memories, only books about adults being helped through past life regression therapy. I decided to fill in the gap and wrote Children’s Past Lives as a guidebook for parents who encounter such memories in their own children.

  After its publication in 1997 and the launch of my Web site, www.ReincarnationForum.com, I received thousands of e-mails from parents whose young children had had or were having spontaneous past life memories. With so many cases, I began to see recurring patterns in the phenomenon. Some children begin to speak of these memories as soon as they can talk—some still in diapers! They surprise their parents with comments such as “When I was big before,” or “When I died before.” Or they exhibit unusual behaviors: phobias, nightmares, unlearned talents and perplexing abilities, or uncanny insight into adult affairs they couldn’t possibly know about in their only two or three years of life. Some memories manifest as strong emotions, such as profound sadness as they recount lonely deaths on battlefields, fond memories of a particular horse, or longing for their other families, their wives, husbands, their own children.

  The cases that came to me were rich in drama, full of amazement and compelling emotions. But one thing was lacking: facts that could be verified, that offered objective proof that the memories were real. My children—and none of the other children whose memories I investigated—could remember their former names, or where they had lived, or any other hard facts that could be validated. That’s why this compelling story of James Leininger is so unusual.

  But it is not unique. There is a large body of such verified cases in young children in non-Western cultures. Dr. Ian Stevenson, former head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia Medical School, researched children’s spontaneous past life recall for forty years, beginning in the early 1960s. By his death in 2007, he had rigorously investigated and meticulously documented nearly 3,000 cases, mostly in Asia. Some 700 of these young children, usually under five, had such vivid past life recall that they remembered their former names, where they had lived, the names of relatives, and very specific yet mundane details of their former lives, details that Dr. Stevenson proves they couldn’t have known. Dr. Stevenson matched each child’s statements, behaviors, personality quirks, and even physical attributes (he wrote an entire work on birthmarks and birth defects relating to past lives) to the facts of the actual person the child remembered being. The similarities go far beyond mere chance or coincidence.

  But the great majority of his cases are from cultures in which reincarnation is a dominant belief: India, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Lebanon, and West Africa. This makes it easier for skeptics to dismiss his findings, no matter how rigorous his proof, because these cultures already believe in reincarnation. I knew it would take a highly detailed and verifiable case from a Judeo-Christian family to open Western minds to this reality. But neither Dr. Stevenson, his international colleagues, or I had ever found any American or European cases as richly detailed as the Asian cases. This was puzzling, and more than a little frustrating.

  Then in 2001, I got an e-mail from Andrea Leininger. At first glance, it was like many others. Her son, James, suffered from severe, recurring nightmares of his plane crashing. The two-year-old was also obsessed with airplanes and seemed to have an uncanny knowledge of World War II planes. As I read her e-mail, I noticed facts that fit a pattern I had often seen: nightmares of events a child couldn’t possibly have experienced in his two or three short years of life, and an interest or an obsession relating to the content of his nightmare.

  We exchanged e-mails, and I was impressed with Andrea’s insights. I got the feeling that she and her husband, Bruce, were down-to-earth, educated people who were wrestling to understand what was happening to their precious toddler. They were desperate for a way to help ease the terrifying nightmares that were disrupting all their lives. I was particularly intrigued by James’s extensive knowledge of airplanes, facts that even his parents didn’t know.

  I told the Leiningers that James was remembering a past life death, and I reiterated the techniques in my books: acknowledge what James was going through as a literal experience and assure him that he is now safe, that the scary experience is over. Other parents had found these techniques worked to allay their children’s fears and to let go of memories of a traumatic past life death. Andrea understood. She intuitively knew what was happening with James: that he was suffering from actual memories of his plane crashing. I reassured her that she was capable of helping her son.

  I didn’t hear from Andrea after that, and I assumed it meant that my advice had helped and that James was better. Then, about a year later, a producer from ABC contacted me about doing a segment on children’s past lives. I scanned all my e-mails and pulled out a few promising cases, including the Leiningers’. I found myself wondering what had happened with James.

  I called Andrea to get an update. She was happy to report that she had followed my method and that James’s nightmares had all but stopped. Great news!

  But there was more. Although the nightmares had subsided, and James’s fears about his crashing in a plane had dissipated, he continued to amaze them with new details about his life as a fighter pilot. He remembered the type of plane he flew, the name of his aircraft carrier, and the name of one of his pilot friends. I was excited that this case was still progressing and I strongly hoped that the Leiningers would share their story on TV. Andrea was open to the idea, but she had to consult with her husband. In our first conversation, Bruce’s opening line to me was, “You have to understand, I’m a Christian.” I felt I had hit a wall. I thought I’d have to find another case for TV. But then he surprised me when he added, “But I can’t explain what’s happening with my son.” We talked more and I sensed an opening. Clearly, he was struggling to keep his Christian beliefs intact as he tried to understand what was happening to James, and he desperately needed to explain it in some way other than reincarnation. I understood how shocking this was for him, and I offered my reassurance that this was all “normal.”

  The TV show was a great success; the story was presented clearly and fairly. We were all pleased. Over the next few years, we exchanged dozens of e-mails. Andrea sent me photos of James and his many drawings of planes being shot down. We spent hours on the phone talking excitedly about James’s latest revelations and amazing coincidences, one after another, all of which led them farther and farther down the rabbit hole.

  For Andrea and me, each new revelation was a confirmation of what we already knew: that James was remembering an actual past life. But Bruce continued to struggle. Each revelation added to his conflict. So this book is about Bruce as much as about James. He was torn between his deep Christian belief “that we live only once, we die, and then go to heaven,” and what he was witnessing in his own son. No matter how hard he tried,
he couldn’t explain away what he was seeing.

  Bruce’s drive to disprove James’s past life memories adds great weight to this fascinating story. We see how hard he works to find a “rational” explanation. We watch as he tracks down leads with the dogged perseverance of a detective, not satisfied with anything less than hard facts. And the body of evidence that he and Andrea amass, through their diligent research, is the main reason their story is so extraordinary.

  Soul Survivor is special in other ways as well. We are witness to something miraculous in the way young James touched the hearts of so many. His present family, the family of his previous life, and the surviving veterans who fought beside him in his former life were all deeply affected by James. What came so naturally to this little boy shook the deep-seated beliefs of those around him. His story reveals a new perspective on life and death for anyone who sees that this was not just a child’s imaginings, but something achingly real.

  Carol Bowman

  Author of Children’s Past Lives and

  Return from Heaven

  PART ONE

  The Dream

  CHAPTER ONE

  It’s only a bad dream, and when you wake up in the morning, it’ll all be gone.

  MIDNIGHT, MONDAY, MAY 1, 2000

  THE SCREAMS CAME out of nowhere. One day James Leininger, just three weeks past his second birthday, was a happy, playful toddler, the centerpiece of a loving family of three living on the soft coastal plain of southern Louisiana. And then suddenly, in the darkest hour of midnight, he was flopping around on his bed like a broken power line, howling at the sky as if he could crack open the heavens with his ear-shattering distress.

  Flying down the long hallway from the master bedroom came his mother, Andrea. She stopped at the doorway of her first and only child and, holding her breath, watched her son’s thrashing and screaming. What to do? Somewhere in one of the texts in her great library of child-rearing books, she had read that it could be dangerous to wake a child abruptly from a nightmare.