Sergeant Theodore H. Laban

Theodore H. Laban graduated from Kenosha High School in 1935. 

Kenosha High School in 1935

Theodor Laban (Laban is a Polish name) married for the first time with Mary ? after the Second World War. The couple divorced or his wife died and it is to believed they had no children. Who is first wife was is unknow to me. The couple divorced or his wife died.  He remarried after january 1962 with Dortha Fae “Dot” Price Laban. He met his second wife at a dance class probably in or near Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Dortha Fae “Dot” Price Laban

Theodore H. Laban had no children, not much is known about his youth. Who his parents were is unknown to me.  

He entered military service on 12 October 1935.

The B-25 #40-2242 xith Laban on board took off in eighth place from the U.S.S. Hornet, with Tokyo as its target. The target was not successfully bombed, but the aircraft had been modified before the mission and used fuel at a rate larger than calculated. Therefore, instead of heading for China, the pilot turned the aircraft toward then-neutral Russia. Look at the Crew 08 page for more information.

The aircraft landed at Primorskrai Regional Air Field, about 40 miles from Vladivostok. The crew was interned under the Geneva Convention, and held at a location near the border of Persia (present-day Iran). On 29 May 1943, after 13 months of captivity, the crew escaped into Mushhad, Iran and was returned to the U.S. by the British Embassy.

This happened with the crew :

After (a safe) landing at 5:45 p.m. at Primiori Airfield north of Vladkvostok, Captain York and his crew were briefly interviewed by the base commander, Colonel Kovalev, and then fed prior to their overnight stay.

The following morning, their journey across Siberia began with their first stop at Khabarovsk, some 400 miles north of Vladivostok, where they met the Soviet Far Eastern Army Commander, General Stearn.

He informed them that they were ‘interned pursuant to the Geneva Convention International Law.’ The crew was held for 10 days at Khabarovsk. They then traveled by train, accompanied by a 21 year old Russian officer, for 21 days westerly to Penza, approximately 400 miles southwest of Moscow.

According to co-pilot Bob Emmans, the five man crew remained at Penza for 2 1/2 months. While in Penza they were visited by U.S. Military Attache, Colonel Joe Michela, from Moscow. Michela reported the crew’s health and general condition to the U.S. Embassy in Washington, D.C.

On March 25, 1943, the crew was moved from Okhansk (Perm) to Ashkabad near the Iranian border.

Just prior to 29 May 1943, the crew members (with a blink of the Russian eye ?), escaped through the rugged mountains to Mashhad, Iran, and subsequently returned to the U.S. via the British Embassy in Teheran, Iran. All crew members had survived the ordeal and were able to continue their flying service in Europe until the German surrender in May, 1945.

Theodore Henry Laban died on 1 September 1978 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. 

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