This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we're back with our American stories.

Up next, another story from our regular contributor from Iowa, Scott Jones.

Scott's the author of Growing Up Rural, and today he brings us the story of a boy named Leo,

and it's all about his time in the Navy and some special letters from the war that he wrote to his family.

Here's Scott with a story.

Leo enlisted in the Marine Corps on February 4th,

1942 in Des Moines, Iowa, at the age of 22.

He joined the Marine Corps because he felt they were the toughest group

and felt he could out shoot most anyone.

At least that's what he had told his younger sister, Helen.

Growing up, he was a sharpshooter, bagging squirrel, rabbit, and pheasant on the family farm.

But he also joined out of a sense of duty to his country and the war effort to maintain our freedom.

He was shipped out to San Diego for basic training before heading overseas to the South Pacific Islands. In San Diego he became both a rifle and pistol sharpshooter, as well as completed radio school.

From San Diego he was shipped over to New Zealand. He loved the beauty of that

country and spoke often of his time there before being shipped out to the south and central

Pacific. He served with the third Marine Division for 18 months, where he fought enemy forces

on the islands of Bougainville, the British Solomon Islands, Guam,

and the Marianas Islands, and served as radio chief of his outfit, as well as carried a machine gun and a pistol.

He didn't talk much about his times on the islands and what really took place there. I know from one of his friends who was in the same unit as Leo that they saw a lot of fighting and death.

All he could say was that it was horrific.

This was true for many of the World War II veterans.

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