D. Clarke Evans Photographer

LeRoy L. Leonard

Corporal, USMC
1944–1947

Pfc. LeRoy L. Leonard
Youngstown, OH, 1945

I am a Marine of no distinction, but I am a Marine.

I grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, and went to boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina. I would have graduated from high school in 1945, but I joined the Marine Corps in November, 1944. I had to get my GED later. Why the Marine Corps? My older brother and first cousin were Marines. My cousin was in the First Marine Division at Guadalcanal, Peleliu, and Okinawa. My brother was a seagoing Marine on the carrier Bunker Hill. He went through 11 campaigns. I joined because everyone wanted to join; you were eager. They were lined up at the recruiting offices. 

After boot camp, I was sent to Camp Pendleton for additional training, then to San Diego, California boarding a ship for Pearl Harbor. A week later I was sent to Maui and became a platoon runner. With the ending of the war, I didn’t have enough points to return home, so was sent to Guam and assigned to the commander of the Marianas. I did office work, and some military police duties. 

One night I was on guard duty at the two-story headquarters building. Shortly after going on duty I heard gunfire from the nearby warehouses. Several Seabees had heard the same gunfire and came to investigate. I was on an outside fire escape ladder, and they were below me and to my left. One of the Seabees heard me chamber a round in my .45 and fired his carbine in my direction, just missing my chest and hitting my arm. I yelled at them, told them I was a Marine and that they had shot me. They vacated the area. The phones were out, so I yelled for help. Eventually an ambulance picked me up and took me to the hospital. The thing is, there were still Japanese on the island. A month before I got shot, an Army soldier was shot. I was sent to the Philadelphia Naval Hospital. While there, an order was issued stating that if you joined before a certain date you could request a discharge. I requested a discharge.

I was fortunate I never saw combat. I joined the 4th Marine Division right after Iwo Jima. It is ironic that my cousin and brother experienced all the combat action and never, thank God, were wounded; whereas I, never having experienced combat, was the only one to receive a wound from a firearm.

I never expected to rejoin the service, but a year later I did, because at that time they had a policy that brothers could be stationed together. My brother had gotten out of the Marines, joined the Air Force and was stationed in Munich, Germany. I joined the Army and was stationed in Frankfurt, Germany near him. We would hitchhike back and forth to see each other. Then my brother was sent to Colorado. I got out of the Army, and joined the Air Force to be near my brother who was at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. I worked in the photo lab at Lowry. When I was a teenager, I had a little Kodak camera. I had to pick some career, so I chose photography. Later I worked at the photo lab at Travis Air Force Base. I was looking to get married and was writing three home-town girls. I went home, took out all three and ended up marrying my wife as she had hot lips. Ten days after I met her, we were married. 

I served 3 years in the Marine Corps, 3 ½ years in the Army, and 14 years in the Air Force. When I go out I wear my Marine Corps hat, I don’t wear the Air Force hat. {12-08-2015 • San Antonio, TX}