| Abstract |
Captain Roland G. Bienvenu served in the U.S. Navy from 1941 until 1965, and in this interview he discusses his naval career from his entrance into the Naval Academy until his retirement in 1965. Included are details of his various assignments at sea aboard the USS HYMAN, USS LANING, USS BURDO, USS JOUETT, USS CHARLES P. CECIL, and USS YOUNG; and his duties as commander of Landing Ship, Squadron 5 (1958) and as a Naval Attaché in Greece (1947-1949), Lebanon (1949-1951), and Canada (1962-1965). Mentioned briefly are his assignments with the Office of Naval Intelligence (1951-1953), the Secretary of Defense (1955-1958), and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1959). After leaving the military service in 1965, Bienvenu served as Director of Housing at Southwestern Louisiana University from 1965 until 1977. |
| General note | Interviewer: Donald R. Lennon. Interview date: June 5, 1991. |
| Access restriction | No access restrictions. |
| Cite as |
Roland G. Bienvenu Oral History Interview, Special Collections Department, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA. |
| Terms of use | Repository does not own copyright to the oral history collection. Permission to cite, reproduce, or broadcast must be obtained from both the repository and the participants in the oral history, or their heirs. |
| Acquisitions source |
Joyner- Gift of Roland G. Bienvenu. |
| Biographical note | Roland G. Bienvenu, Sr., was born September 1917 in Louisiana. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1941. His first commission was aboard the USS JOUETT, DD396, on which he served from 1941 to 1943. He spent World War II in the South Atlantic, Caribbean, Aleutian Islands, and the Philippines on the USS JOUETT; the USS YOUNG, DD580 (1943-1945); and the USS CHARLES P. CECIL, DD835 (1945). He was also commanding officer of the USS LANING, APD55 (1945), and the USS BURDO, APD 33 (1946-1947). After graduating from Intelligence School in 1947, Bienvenu served as Naval attache to Athens, Greece (1947-1949), and Beirut, Lebanon (1949-1951). Bienvenu then served at the Pentagon (1951-1953) in OPNAV (ONI) and in the office of the Secretary of Defense. From 1953-1955, he served as commanding officer of USS HYMAN, DD732. During 1958, he commanded Landing Ship Squadron 5 in Okinawa. He served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1959-1962) organization as a member of the National Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Standing Group, conducting security inspections in countries throughout Europe. Bienvenu also served as Naval attachto Ottawa, Canada (1962-1965). In 1965, he retired from the military and became the director of housing at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (1965-1977). |
