Thursday, March 28, 2013

Navy Hero

Born in 1925, he enlisted in the Navy at 17

Raoul David Broussard was born on July 2, 1925, in Louisiana. At age 17, he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserve. That was on June 20, 1943, in San Antonio, Texas. He went through boot camp in Corpus Christi, Texas; ARM “A” School, in Millington, Tennessee; gunnery school, in Hollywood, Florida; and operational training, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He served with Torpedo Squadron 85 (USS Shangri-La) from June 1944 to September 1945. Mr. Broussard received an Air Medal and Gold Star in lieu of second Air Medal for combat missions from April to September 1945 over Okinawa and Japan. Mr. Broussard retired after 20 years’ active duty on December 31, 1963 as Senior Chief Aviation Electronics Technician.
After leaving the Navy, Mr. Broussard worked in many varied fields of electronics. His work included the Saturn V program that put men on the moon, SupShip 8th Naval District as a quality assurance electronics inspector, NAVELEX Calibration Lab, test procedure writer for Avondale Shipyards, test engineer for Litton Systems and, finally, as systems test engineer for the external booster tank for the Space Shuttle at Lockheed Martin. Mr. Broussard fully retired August 1989.
He has been married to Patricia Auenson since October 1944. They have five children, eight grandchildren and nine great grandchildren.