James Alfred (Al) Lybecker – Brother of Sylvia Lybecker-Brim

Compiled by Andrea Brim

Part of the information below was supplied by Myron Bostwick, Jr.

 

Cheney State Normal School football team 1906… Al is #2 (the number is on his left hand)

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In WWI James Alfred Lybecker (Al) was an army ambulance driver in France.  One night Ella had a dream about an ambulance driving through a field and then blowing up.  A few weeks later she got a telegram saying that Al was in an ambulance accident in a field in France, but he and was recovering in hospital.  The event happened on the exact day/night that she had this dream.

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Al was also served in the Army during WWII.  He worked as a supply officer and his main task was to keep supplies flowing to the front lines from ship to shore.  During the invasion of Ie Island (just west of Okinawaa, Japan), the field officers from his ship left together on one barge towards shore. The Japanese blew up the barge and all the field officers aboard were killed. Al was an eyewitness to the entire event.

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Consequently Al was promoted immediately to a field officer position.  This meant that he was now one of the officers in the war zone directing the fighting of the enemy.  Fortunately the war didn’t continue much longer and he wasn’t injured. 

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One time when he was a field officer, he shared a foxhole with the well-known war journalist Ernie Pyle*.  Ernie became restless in the foxhole and decided he wanted to be closer to the frontline, even though there was enemy fire all around the foxhole.  Ernie jumped into a nearby jeep and drove off towards the frontline.  The jeep and Ernie were gunned down by Japanese gun fire.

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Excerpt from The New York Times April 19, 1945

“Mr. Pyle had just talked with a general commanding Army troops and Lieut. Col. James E. Landrum, executive officer of an infantry regiment, before "jeeping" to a forward command post with Lieut. Col. Joseph B. Coolidge of Helena, Ark., commanding officer of the regiment, to watch front-line action.

Colonel Coolidge was alongside Mr. Pyle when he was killed. "We were moving down the road in our jeep," related Colonel Coolidge. "Ernie was going with me to my new command post. At 10 o'clock we were fired on by a Jap machine gun on a ridge above us. We all jumped out of the jeep and dived into a roadside ditch.”

Close to the end of the war, at the surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri, there are photos of the lineup of officers on the deck.  Al is one of the officers shown below in the photo.  He may be located on the right hand side of the line of officers. 

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 USS Missouri

Shortly thereafter he was discharged and flown home most unceremoniously on a cargo plane.  He didn’t have adequate clothing for the cold temperatures on the plane and subsequently caught pneumonia. He did however recover from pneumonia and went on to work in the banking industry in eastern Washington.  During the depression in the late 1920’s, he (as a banker) was able to help several farmers in eastern WA save their farms from foreclosure.  Ultimately he helped these farmers do quite well, and in the 1950’s several farmers from this area went on trip to Africa. 

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Al and his wife Hazel V. Morris had no children.  Mike Bostwick’s only memories of Hazel was that she was very precise and well dressed. 

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