FRONT ROW: GEORGE QUINN, HAROLD TOMMY TOMPKINS, WARREN BOLTON, KENNY KUDLER, ROY DOYLE, DON YOUNG, JACK MAUSE, (UNKNOWN), ROY W., D. CONSEL, BACK ROW: LEONARD O’HARA, DONALD “MICKEY” LAMBERT, WILLIAM “BALDY” ARENDS, DAVID LOGAN, GEORGE MIDDLETON, RICHARD “DICK” BEATY, (INSTRUCTOR), (INSTRUCTOR), MORTON, LEROY GOVER, JAY REED, JIM MCINERY, CW SEATON, DAR KINDRED, LEONARD RYERSON. BAKERSFIELD, CALIFORNIA OCTOBER 1941
They say a photograph is worth a thousand words. The men you see standing here in Bakersfield, California on a hot October afternoon in 1941, are volunteers who trained together, played together, crossed the U-Boat infested waters of the Atlantic, learned to fly the fastest and most maneuverable aircraft of the time and ultimately faced the Germans in the skies over England and Europe. Many of them were killed, two were wounded, two are decorated Aces and one is my great uncle (the last guy on the left).
Finding Leonard is the true story of my quest to find Leonard William O’Hara. Using my uncle’s letters he wrote home, photographs, taped interviews with his friends and family, archival artifacts left by members of this group at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO, interviews with surviving members of RAF bomber command and the diary of LeRoy Gover (one of the two surviving pilots), I will do my best to piece together Leonard’s exploits and hopefully explained how a 24 year old from Iowa was flying for the RAF prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor.
