LTC Edward W. Leonard goes on ahead

We got the sad news today that Lieutenant Colonel Edward W. Leonard passed on Veterans’ Day, which is appropriate because he was shot down over Laos on Memorial Day 1968 and he remained n the enemies’ hands for nearly five years. Lt Col Edward W. Leonard, Jr., graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1960, and was a Prisoner of War from June 1968 to March 1973. He was awarded 4 Silver Stars, the Legion of Merit, 3 Distinguished Flying Crosses for Valor, the Bronze Star Medal for Valor, 2 Purple Hearts, and 23 Air Medals for his service as a pilot in Vietnam and as a Prisoner of War at the hands of a brutal enemy.

From his biography at POW Network;

What a contrast with the memories of the nearly five years of imprisonment.
After being shot down while flying a rescue mission over Laos, I managed to
avoid capture for two days. While sitting in a tree, a Communist soldier
Iying in a hammock, looked up and saw me.

In the summer of 1969 for some unknown reason I was interrogated about a
possible escape attempt. They did not appreciate my answers and as the
saying goes, they tortured me until I was guilty.

I have no regrets over any of the twelve years of military service. In fact,
I regard my time as senior officer in the compound as the most important job
I ever had, and in the glory of the company of some of the most magnificent
men I have ever known. Those years gave me the opportunity to know how to
use freedom.

Tracy Leonard writes, on his passing;

He was proud that he never deserted his brothers-in-arms. He was proud that they never abandoned him. And he always said that he would do it all over again: the fear, the hunger, the humiliation, and the pain, just to save even one of these men, these brothers-in-arms, all of whom he loved dearly and with his whole heart.

And, knowing my dad, he would do it all over again with the same irreverence, the same aplomb and the same wise-ass sense of humor that frequently cost him a rifle butt to the spine, or a broken jaw, or the inability to think straight for weeks on end as he lay splayed out on a rack at the back of his cell, knocked senseless and incapacitated, but still snickering quietly inside.

The measure of any man is whether he leaves this earth having added more than he extracted. My father positively changed the lives of numerous men for the better. In many cases they were strangers and he risked his life for them, prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice, so that they could live.

He loved them UNCONDITIONALLY and GENEROUSLY and without regret. He was resolute in his dedication to his country, to his brothers-in-arms, to his fellow cellmates, and to his mission. My dad and all of these men returned home with honor.

Category: Blue Skies