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Jesse Naul Jr., decorated for extraordinary heroism in World War II combat, dies at 92

By JOE SIMNACHER Staff Writer
jsimnacher@dallasnews.com

Published: 16 April 2013 10:29 PM
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Jesse W. Naul Jr.

Jesse W. Naul Jr. received the Navy Cross for extraordinary heroism as a Navy torpedo-bomber pilot during World War II. He went on to a 58-year career as a sales representative.

Naul, 92, died Friday of complications from cancer at his Dallas home.

A memorial service for Naul will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Wilshire Baptist Church, where he had taught the men’s Sunday school class for 50 years. A private graveside service will be Thursday at Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery.

“He was kind of the patriarch of our family,” said his son Nick Naul of Frisco. “He was quite a man. If someone needed help, Dad was there.”

Naul was born in Kentwood, La., where he graduated from high school. He received a bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and returned home to join his family’s business.

The day after Pearl Harbor was attacked, Naul tried to join the Navy to become a pilot, but his blood pressure was too high.

“They sent him home and told him to come back in a couple of weeks and not to smoke and not to drink coffee,” his son said. “He went back in a couple of weeks and they made him lay down for an hour. When they took his blood pressure he passed.”

After flight training, Naul started his military career as an instructor. He repeatedly put in for carrier duty and was assigned to the USS Bennington in 1944.

“Right before he left, he married my mother,” Nick Naul said. Naul married Sara Tycer, who died in 2007.

Naul received the Navy Cross for his actions on April 7, 1945, when he led a squadron of TBM Avenger torpedo bombers in an attack on a Japanese task force in the East China Sea.

Naul and another Avenger coordinated a two-plane attack on a cruiser that was providing anti-aircraft cover for the battleship Yamato.

“One of the pilots mentioned that old Jess flew in through a thunderstorm, which is what it looked like when those shells burst,” his son said. “He went in and got a torpedo in on it. When he landed they found a 20 mm [shell] stuck in the armor plate behind his head that did not explode.”

Naul’s Navy Cross citation read: “His skill, courage and devotion to the fulfillment of a hazardous mission were in keeping with the highest traditions” of the Navy.

“His plane was so full of holes they had to push it off the ship. They couldn’t repair it,” his son said. “It was basically falling apart as he flew it.”

During his more than three years of service during World War II, Naul received the Distinguished Flying Cross on two occasions and was awarded four Air Medals.

“Dad sank three Japanese warships,” his son said. “He would have sunk a fourth one, or at least got a torpedo off on a fourth one, but the torpedo hung up.”

Naul was a lieutenant commander when he was discharged from active duty in September 1945. He continued to serve in the Navy Reserve.

After the war, Naul was a regional sales representative for Celotex, the building materials manufacturer. He retired in 1977 and formed his own business selling building materials and construction supplies.

“He made his last sale two weeks ago yesterday [April 1],” his son said.

In addition to his son Nick, Naul is survived by another son, Jess Naul III of Aurora, Ill.; five grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Memorials may be made to Wilshire Baptist Church, 4316 Abrams Road, Dallas, Texas 75214.

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