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.
