Private Thomas R. Leonard

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World War II US Army Headquarters Battery, 59th Coast Artillery Regiment Service Number: 19044262 Born: 1919 Inducted: January 13, 1941 - Ft Rosencrans, California Captured May 6, 1942 and reported POW of Japanese Status changed to presumed dead, February 1, 1946 Memorial Marker (Tablets of the Missing), Manila American Cemetery, Philippines Purple Heart

Son of ?, Hometown was Wray.

Manila American Cemetery
Memorial Tablet Photo by ABMC Staff.

Notes:

1. Leonard, Thomas R., Pvt., 19044262, Finding of Death, is listed on the 1946 US Army World War II, Honor List of Dead and Missing, State of Colorado, credited to Yuma County. We have not been able to find much information on him and nothing about his parents or family.

2. A September 15, 1944 listing published by the local draft board of all those from Yuma County then serving in the armed forces credits Thomas R. Leonard to Wray.

3. Private Thomas R. Leonard's personnel records were lost in the St. Louis National Personal Records Center fire in 1973. The only individual record the Army now has for him is a single medical sick-call slip, dated 4 April 1942, from Fort Mills, Corregidor Island, PI.

4. A unit roster dated midnight, 30 April 1942 for Headquarters Battery, 59th Coast Artillery, Fort Mills, Corregidor, PI shows Private Thomas R. Leonard present for duty as was Corporal John Perkowski (see next paragraph). Corregidor surrendered to the Japanese on May 6, 1942.

5. Major John Perkowski, US Army (Retired), then Corporal Perkowski, relates in a November 2002 letter that he and Thomas R. "Smokey" Leonard were in the same draft of Army recruits who arrived at Fort Mills on Corregidor Island for Coast Artillery recruit training in late April 1941 and that they were both assigned to the Fort Mills Artillery Command Post when their training was complete. After the war started their duties took them to different batteries on Corregidor but Major Perkowski remembers talking to Smokey Leonard in an overnight POW encampment at the Cabanatuan school about June 24, 1942. Private Leonard expressed his intent to escape from the Japanese in the near future and that he, Leonard, was sure the Filipino people would feed and shelter him. Major Perkowski never learned what happened to Private Leonard after that night nor did he know if the escape attempt was made.

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