Sergeant Paul J. Leonard
- First name: | Paul |
- Middle name: | John |
- Last name: | Leonard |
- Nickname: | - |
- Rank Doolittle raid: | Staff Sergeant |
- Last rank: | Master Sergeant |
- Service number: | 6248728 |
- Date of birth: | 28 June 1914 |
- Place of birth: | Roswell, Chaves, New Mexico, United States |
- Date of death: | 05 January 1943 |
- Place of death: | Youkes-les-Bains, Algeria - Africa |
- Place of the cemetery: | Santa Fe, New Mexico |
- Name of the cemetery: | Santa Fe National Cemetery |
Additional info
The parents of Paul J. Leonard were Barnard Francis “Barney” Leonard and Vada (Chrisman} Leonard. Paul J. Leonard was born on June 28, 1914. Paul Leonard had 3 sisters, Agnes, Marjorie, and Ethel, also had two brothers, Barney and John. Paul J. Leonard was born in Roswell, New Mexico.
Paul's father Barnard
His father was killed in a gun battle with Frank Wallace on 16 July 1933.
Paul J. Leonard was killed in action by enemy fire during World War 2 in Youkes les Bains, Algeria - Africa.
Leonard was Doolittle's aid. He was a close friend of Douglas V. Radney, also an engineer and gunner but in Crew 02.
His wife was Lois Dean Burnett, orn on May 26, 1920, in Granite City, Madison, Illinois, United States - died on 14 April 2008. He married her on January 18, 1941 in in Morrison, Jefferson, Colorado, United States. while he was stationed at Lowry Field. The couple had one son.
After the death of her husband Paul, she married Lois Laurell Everett Julius in 1945. They had 6 children. One of them was the son of her first marriage (with Paul Leonard)
Lois Burnett (picture of her below) was born on 26 May 1920, in Granite City, Madison, Illinois, United States. Her father was Marion Jasper Burnett her mother was Maude Jane Abbett. She married Paul John Leonard in Morrison,on 18 January 1941. Lois lived in the Election District Y in Denver, Colorado, United States during 1940 and also in the Home Township, Brown, Minnesota, United States in 1950. Lois Brunett died in Payson, Gila, Arizona, United States , at the age of 87. Lois and Paul had one son, James Paul Leonard, born in 1942 and died in 2010.
Lois Burnett
On 6 April 1945 she remarried in Morrison, Jefferson, Colorado, United States with Laurell Everett Julius. The couple had two children, Frederick and Penny.
About the death of Paul J. Leonard I found : He died by a bomb. He was at the airfield of Youkes les Bains, Algeria. At night the Germans attacked the airfield. From out of a plane standing at the airfield he gunned at the attacking German planes out of a turret gun. When this B-25 machine gun was empty he jumped out of the plane to hide in a crater. While jumping out he was hit by a German bomb that fell in front of him.
By then Paul Leonard flew under command of James Doolittle. Both became close friends after the Raid on Tokyo it seems. Doolittle said after the war that the death of Paul was his greatest personal tragedy during the war. He informed Paul's wife Louise after Paul died.
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