James meets his past life sister
In February of 2003 Bruce Leininger made contact with Anne Huston Barron, Huston's sister, who now lives in Los Gatos, Calif. Through several phone conversations, the Leiningers and Ms. Barron became friends, and she agreed to send Bruce photos of her brother during his military service. The packages of photos arrived in February and March of 2003.
In one of the packages was a photo of Huston standing in front of a Corsair fighter plane - the same kind of plane James had mentioned over and over. According to Bruce, interviews with past servicemen and declassified U.S. military records, before Huston joined up with the Natoma Bay and VC-81, he was part of an elite special squadron, the VF-301 Devil's Disciples, from January to August of 1944.
The elite squadron test-flew Corsairs for carrier use, and only 20 pilots were selected for this assignment. However, the VF-301 squadron was disbanded after eight months and Huston was then transferred to VC-81 on Oct. 8, 1944.
When he learned this, Bruce says, all of his skepticism vanished.
"I don't have an answer for this, so I can't explain it either," Bruce says. "Through it all, there has to be an element of faith. There could still be the coincidence of dreaming this all up, but there are odd factors you have to calculate. Lightning can strike once, but when it strikes eight or nine times, you can't say it's a coincidence."
Bruce didn't tell Ms. Barron about his son's supernatural story until later that fall, in October of 2003. When he finally told her about the possibility of her brother's spirit being a part of James, she says she was stunned at first and had to let it all sink in. Then on Oct. 15, 2003, Bruce and Andrea received a letter from her, along with several of Huston's personal effects, that not only said she felt James should have the belongings, but that she truly believed the story.
"This child couldn't know the things he does - he just couldn't - so I believe he is somehow a part of my brother," Ms. Barron says. "These are the things you read about. There must be a reason for it, but I have no hint of what it could be. It's some phenomenon that I don't understand. It all happened nearly 60 years ago. There must be a reason."
Despite not knowing the reason for these coincidences, Ms. Barron is convinced that James Leininger is somehow linked to her lost brother. She now calls the 6-year-old boy "James 3." In turn, he refers to Ms. Barron, who is 86 years old, as his sister.
As Bruce would uncover more information about Huston, without telling James about any of it, the Leiningers would notice more about their son's actions. James had three G.I. Joe dolls and named them Leon, Walter and Billie - names of three pilots who coincidently served with Huston.
According to U.S. Pacific Fleet records, Lt. Leon Stevens Conner, Ensign Walter John Devlin and Ensign Billie Rufus Peeler were among the 21 fatalities from the Natoma Bay. They were also members of the VC-81 air squadron with Huston. When asked why he named the dolls the way he did, Bruce says James answered, "Because they greeted me when I went to heaven.'"
After James said that, Bruce could only leave the room in stunned silence.
James also explained to his father how Corsairs would frequently have flat tires and would always tend to turn to the left. After checking with military historians at the Lone Star Flight Museum in Galveston, Texas, the statement was verified.
Andrea recalls the first time she cooked meatloaf for James, who had never had the meal in his life. After Andrea told him they were having meatloaf for dinner, James said he hadn't had meatloaf since he was on the Natoma Bay. So, Bruce and Andrea contacted several veterans from the carrier, and they learned that meatloaf was a regular meal for the crew.
Andrea Leininger said:
Little James remembered many specific details about his family life. We felt that these details, because they affected the Huston family, were not ours to share and did not disclose them to the public in the Prime Time piece out of respect for their family. James remembered he had a sister Annie, but that she was not his only sister. He said he had a sister who was 4 years older named "Roof". He said Roof was 4 years older than Annie and Annie was 4 years older than him. We later found out the older sister was named RUTH! The 3 Huston children were each 4 years apart. He remembered that his father was an alcoholic and used to "tear up the house". He said when he was 13 they had to put his father in a hospital for 6 weeks because he got drunk and broke some glass in the house. He told us that while his dad was in the hospital, his mom had to be a maid, and when his father got out of the hospital, Annie moved away. This was all later confirmed by Anne, James Huston's surviving sister. Annie said that when her father got out of the hospital, which was like a rehabilitation facility, she moved in with her grandparents several states away. All of James recollections were 100% accurate.
After the September 2004 Natoma Bay reunion, where James got to meet Anne and Jack in person, he seemed to have a sharp decrease in recall and dreams. We felt that he was able to get some kind of closure from the reunion. He didn't recognize his old friends, who are all in their 80's now, but he was dissapointed that they were all old now.
James Leininger's meeting with Anne Barron, the sister of James Huston.
James Leininger's meeting with Jack Larson
Statements such as this are hardly scientifically based. To me there is a big difference between critical thinking and skepticism, evidence and conjecture. Carol never leads a child to their memories. EVER!
