At 104, Leach recalls time in WWII

(Art Leach of Pontiac, 104, speaks of his service during World War II this week on Route 24 Radio)

A Navy fighter pilot in World War II can still remember it like it was yesterday.

Art Leach of Pontiac, a native of the Morris area, served in the southern Pacific on aircraft carriers.

“We got there right after the big shootout at Midway,” he recalled. “Butch O’Hare got killed there and I was supposed to be in his squadron but I got there a little after he left.”

Leach is currently 104 and still tells stories of his time in the service.

“We shot 91 enemy aircraft down and they did not shoot one of us from an airplane, however we did lose 31 flyers.”

Accidents at sea resulted from planes not getting enough altitude as they only have one chance to make it, according to Leach. While everyone had the same training, not everyone would fly the same.

“We would fly about 50 to 100 feet off the water for a couple hundred miles. We’d be going 200 plus and the ship is doing about 35 miles an hour.”

Leach refers to his time serving as a little hard and a little easy, a bit of both. He said every flight is different, something he found out after 16 years of flying for the Navy. They would arrive at their target around sun-up when the sun was behind them.

“That made us a little more difficult to shoot at,” explained Leach.

After all these years, Leach still has an interest in flying. You can’t say that for every 104-year-old out there.

“I have a good friend in Joliet that has three airplanes, two of them are World War II aircraft and I have flown both of them.”

Leach said his friend would often call on a Sunday to go flying.

“Lord knows I do.”

A banker for 36 years, Leach got a taste of the business world after his time in the service. He worked at four different banks in different towns. He had five daughters with two of them even working in banking.

“I must have done something right because I’m still here,” Leach said of his age. “I’m very fortunate.”

Leach still gets out and about and even has coffee with a local group in the morning.

“I’ve met a lot of fine people in my 100 years but I don’t think I met too many the first four,” Leach concluded.

Data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs indicates less than one percent of World War II veterans are still alive with that number estimated to be around 66,000. According to the National World War II Museum, around 130 World War II veterans are lost each day.