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James P. Raugh

James P. Raugh, executive officer of the Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill under Commander John P. Graff, took command of the school at a review before about 4,000 people in Kenan Stadium in April 1944. He had earlier helped Commander Tom Hamilton work out the Navy's Pre-Flight training program.

Source: DigitalNC: Cloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), April 15, 1944, p. 1

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to James P. Raugh. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about James P. Raugh’s life and work.

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

  1. James P. Raugh becomes executive officer of the Pre-Flight School When Commander O. O. Kessing left for sea duty and Lt. Comdr. John P. Graff was named commanding officer, Lieut. James P. Raugh, the school's regimental commander, was moved up to executive officer, and Lieut. Lloyd R. Sauer took over the regiment. People: Oliver Owen Kessing, John P. GraffSearch the index · DigitalNC: Cloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), November 28, 1942, p. 1
  2. Governor Broughton and the General Assembly tour the Pre-Flight School Governor J. Melville Broughton, the Council of State and about 140 members of the General Assembly came from Raleigh by bus as an honorary 20th Battalion, watched cadets on the obstacle course and at football, boxing, wrestling, swimming and other sports, saw hand-to-hand combat and mass drills in Woollen Gymnasium and dined with the school. On February 24 the legislature passed a joint resolution thanking Commander Graff and Orange County's representative, John W. Umstead Jr., who arranged the visit. People: J. Melville Broughton, Josephus Daniels, James P. Raugh, John W. Umstead Jr., John P. GraffCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), February 20, 1943, p. 1
  3. Tar Heel Boys' State delegates take a week of Pre-Flight training About 145 high school seniors at the fifth annual Tar Heel Boys' State, run by the American Legion with the Institute of Government, were housed at the Pre-Flight School for the week. They spent mornings in sessions on the campus and afternoons in drill, hand-to-hand fighting, boxing, wrestling, swimming and the obstacle course, closing at the Carolina Inn. People: James P. Raugh, John P. GraffCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), August 28, 1943, p. 3
  4. Commander Graff hands the Pre-Flight School to Lieut. Comdr. James P. Raugh at a Kenan Stadium review Before about 4,000 people in Kenan Stadium, Commander John P. Graff gave up command of the Pre-Flight School to his executive officer, Lieut. Comdr. James P. Raugh, and left for duty overseas. University president Frank P. Graham gave the main address and a scroll from the state and university, Governor Broughton and Josephus Daniels spoke, and Graham said 13,000 cadets had entered the school. People: Frank Porter Graham, J. Melville Broughton, Josephus Daniels, R. B. House, James P. Raugh, John P. GraffCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), April 15, 1944, p. 1
  5. Pre-Flight cadets are told the Navy is cutting back pilot training The whole regiment of cadets met in Memorial Hall to hear that the Navy would substantially reduce its pilot training program because aerial losses had run a third below forecasts. Each cadet got a letter from Rear Admiral A. W. Radford, and Lieut. Comdr. James P. Raugh explained the choices, including combat aircrew duty for those who left. People: James P. RaughCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), July 1, 1944, p. 1
  6. The Pre-Flight School marks the German surrender with vesper services in Memorial Hall Instead of celebrating, the school observed victory in Europe with vesper services for all hands, their families and friends, the cadet choir singing, and Chaplain George W. Cummins preaching on 'Work and Worship'. The commanding officer and the chief of air primary training told the men to keep at work until Japan was beaten. People: James P. RaughCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), May 11, 1945, p. 1
  7. The Pre-Flight School marks three years with more than 15,000 cadets sent on to flight training On its third anniversary, kept as a regular work day, the school counted more than 15,000 cadets who had finished its course and gone on to primary flight training since the first battalion arrived in May 1942, and noted that for more than a year it had been the only Pre-Flight school training French cadets. People: James P. RaughCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), May 25, 1945, p. 1
  8. The outdoor pool named for Commodore O. O. Kessing is formally dedicated The outdoor pool completed in 1943 and named by the university trustees for Commodore O. O. Kessing, the school's first commanding officer, was dedicated during the Pre-Flight sports finals. Chancellor Robert B. House presided, Comdr. James P. Raugh and President Frank P. Graham spoke, and a cypress plaque was unveiled in the pool's rock wall; the pool served the school, the university and the town. People: Oliver Owen Kessing, R. B. House, Frank Porter Graham, James P. RaughCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), June 29, 1945, p. 3
  9. The Navy orders all Pre-Flight trainees out of Chapel Hill by October 1 and the school decommissioned Word reached the school that all trainees were to be transferred by October 1 and the school decommissioned soon after; about 1,000 of the 1,400 cadets were bound for separation centers. The commanding officer said the dormitories and other university buildings used since 1942 were being handed back as fast as possible for the university's postwar needs. People: James P. RaughCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), September 21, 1945, p. 1
  10. The Cloudbuster prints its last issue, counting 18,700 cadets trained at Chapel Hill The Pre-Flight School's weekly closed with an eight-page special, its 156th issue since September 19, 1942. It counted 18,700 cadets received for training, 1,220 officers indoctrinated as instructors, 360 French cadets and 78 French officers, and printed farewells from Mayor Robert W. Madry, who named every man of the station an honorary citizen of Chapel Hill. People: Robert W. Madry, James P. RaughCloudbuster (Navy Pre-Flight School, Chapel Hill), October 3, 1945, p. 1

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows the 4 with a known location.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as James P. Raugh, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Background on The Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill, 1942–1945

Background reading on The Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill, 1942–1945. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss James P. Raugh. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

The Cloudbuster Nine

Keene, Anne R. · 2018

Anne R. Keene's history of the Cloudbusters, the baseball team of the Navy Pre-Flight School at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill during the Second World War, on which Ted Williams played in 1943. The chapters move from a batboy's trunk of keepsakes through the pre-flight training program to the players' lives after the war, and Keene's own family is part of the story. Published by Sports Publishing in New York in 2018, 340 pages with sixteen pages of plates.

The Forgotten First

Albright, Alex · 2013 · R.A. Fountain

Alex Albright's history of the B-1 band, the group of Black musicians drawn largely from students and graduates of North Carolina A&T who became the first Black sailors of the modern Navy to serve above the rank of messman, and the first of more than a hundred Black Navy bands in wartime. The band was posted to the Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill, the book's Orange County link. Published by R.A. Fountain in 2013, 194 pages with illustrations and portraits.

Football goes to war : the Army and Navy have chosen a tough sport to help prepare our fighting men for combat

Woodward, Stanley · 1942 · Look Inc

Stanley Woodward's illustrated article from Look magazine of October 20, 1942, on football as training for combat, detached from the issue. It centers on the men training at the Navy Pre-Flight School in Chapel Hill, whose team was called the Cloud Busters. Pages 62 to 67, chiefly illustrations and portraits, published by Look in Des Moines.

UNC

A tide of dreams : the untold backstory of coaches Paul "Bear" Bryant, Carney Laslie and Frank Moseley

Keefe, Carey Henry · 2022 · KöehlerBooks

Carey Henry Keefe traces the friendship and football careers of Paul Bryant, Carney Laslie and Frank Moseley, coaches whose paths crossed at the Navy Pre-Flight School the service ran in Chapel Hill during the Second World War. The book also concerns Wallace Wade and the history of college sports in the United States. Published in 2022, 382 pages with illustrations, and recipes are included.

UNC

United States Navy Pre-Flight School : research materials

2004

Six items gathered in a portfolio in 2004 as research materials on the United States Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill, the wartime program that trained naval aviation cadets on the university campus. Topics include the school, the Navy, and the University of North Carolina during the Second World War. The portfolio measures 39 centimeters.

UNC

Training programs of the University of North Carolina for the U.S. Navy during World War II

Pendergraph, William L. · 1993

William L. Pendergraph compiled a list of the students who passed through the University of North Carolina's training programs for the Navy during the Second World War, including the V-12 college training unit and the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. Directory in form and unpaged, published in 1993.

UNC
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Flight of the avenger : George Bush at war

Hyams, Joe · 1991 · Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Joe Hyams tells the story of George Bush's Navy service in the Second World War, from his childhood and youth through his time as a young carrier pilot. The book makes scattered references to Bush's training at the naval air station in Chapel Hill, which is the Orange County connection. Published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1991, 178 pages with illustrations.

The sky's the limit : the University of North Carolina and the Chapel Hill communities' response to the establishment of the U.S. Naval Pre-Flight School during World War II

Baker, Mary Layne · 1980

Mary Layne Baker's 1980 study of how the university and the town of Chapel Hill received the United States Navy Pre-Flight School that opened there during the Second World War. It treats the relations between community and college alongside the wartime history of the university itself. A typescript of 133 leaves with illustrations and a map, closing with a bibliography.

UNC

This mark of commendation ...

1946 · Department of the Navy

A single printed sheet issued by the Department of the Navy in 1946, carrying a mark of commendation and signed in a manuscript hand by James Forrestal. The commendation concerns the Navy V-12 Program, the Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina in the Second World War. One sheet, 36 by 28 centimeters.

UNC

Camp Davis vs. North Carolina Pre-Flight.

1943

Programs like this one came from the athletic associations of the five Navy pre-flight schools. This issue covers Camp Davis against North Carolina Pre-Flight at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill on October 16, 1943. Fifty-two pages carry portraits of commanders, coaching notes, line-ups and statistics, along with sections on the Georgia, Del Monte, Iowa and St. Mary's schools.

Camp Lejeune vs. No. Carolina Pre-Flight.

1943

Football program for the game between the cadets of Camp Lejeune and those of the Navy Pre-Flight School at Chapel Hill, set for November 13, 1943, at Kenan Stadium. Sixty-three pages with portraits of commanders, notes on the two coaching staffs, line-ups and statistics, plus pages on the Georgia, Del Monte, Iowa and St. Mary's pre-flight schools.

Judy was dynamite

Troy, Elizabeth (Fiction writer) · 1943 · The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company

A wartime magazine romance by Elizabeth Troy, set in Chapel Hill during the years when the United States Navy Pre-Flight School was operating on the university campus. An editorial note on page 30 says the magazine sent Troy to North Carolina to observe the school before writing. The story runs across seven pages of the 1943 issue with a color illustration.

UNC

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