Eugene T. Leavy was born on 26 November 1925 in New York City. At a young age, he moved with his family to the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens [Annotator's Note: Queens is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. Leavy had two older brothers and one younger sister. His mother insisted the children go to parochial school and they were enrolled in St. Monica’s School on the other side of town. Leavy recalls the great sense of responsibility and discipline he was taught by the nuns who staffed the school. His father, though college educated, resorted to digging ditches for the Jamaica water works during the Great Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States], and his mother cleaned houses four days a week while also raising the children. The Depression was excellent basic training for the Army and for life at large. He spent his free time playing sandlot baseball and football and running in the woods at the end of the block. He and his brothers ran errands for neighbors and sold newspapers for a few pennies. Though times were hard, he knew nothing else. In the late 1930s, Leavy was unaware of the outside world and the rise of Nazism. He was so physically removed from Germany and Japan that the two countries never crossed his mind. He was interested in girls and football at the time, and not concerned with world events. However, he was blindly patriotic in his high school years. Not until the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] did Leavy begin thinking more broadly. Unlike the nuns at St. Monica’s, his teachers at Brooklyn Technical High School engaged their students with discussions of world affairs. One of his teachers was a Jewish man who was especially passionate when speaking about the rise of the Nazi party. There was no single moment when everything clicked for him, he just naturally became more aware of his surroundings by talking to and experiencing people with different backgrounds. Leavy’s eldest brother received a deferment [Annotator's Note: postponement of military service] based on his job while his other brother enlisted in the Army Air Corps several months before the attack on Pearl Harbor. This brother was already in England while Leavy was in high school, which led to him being more serious about learning and understanding what was going on. He graduated from high school at age 17 and went to get a job. He soon decided he wanted to enlist and did so with his parents’ written permission. Shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Leavy reported to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey] for induction. He scored well on the tests he was given and was selected for the Army Specialized Training Program [Annotator's Note: generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] which would send him to college for free and earn him a commission as a seconnd lieutenant in an intelligence unit. Leavy’s parents were excited to learn this, not because he was getting a free education, but because they believed he would hopefully be spared from combat. He reported to basic infantry training at Fort Benning, Georgia. This was no big adjustment for him and he was happy to have three meals per day. As a Depression kid, he was struck to see a sign in the mess hall that read “Take what you want, but eat what you take.” The training was hard for some of the city kids, but not for him.

Eugene T. Leavy was selected for the Army Specialized Training Program [Annotator's Note: generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers]. A month shy of the end of basic training, a sergeant who could not seem to hold back his pleasure told the group that they would not be going to college, but would instead be cannon fodder for the 100th Infantry Division. They accepted the news as just another fact of life. His three friends were separated into different companies. Leavy landed in I Company, 398th Infantry Regiment. He suspects he always received some sort of special treatment in the Army because his serial number showed to the officers that he had volunteered for service [Annotator’s Note: rather than being drafted]. He volunteered because it was expected of everyone his age to serve in the military. They began some intense training which was followed by a radio operation course. One man in each company was chosen for this training in case the company’s radio squad was knocked out in combat. He learned to drive and operate a radio and, shortly before shipping out, was assigned to the regimental message center. He believes his serial number got him out of his combat role. He shipped out in late September 1944 on a converted civilian ship. His ship took a zig-zag [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] pattern across the Atlantic. He embarked on this journey with an open mind and credits this mindset to his high school years when he was taught to embrace and learn from all new experiences. The camaraderie among men formed quickly onboard the ship. He arrived in Marseilles [Annotator’s Note: Marseilles, France] in a harbor full of sunken ships and went ashore by crossing a floating gangway. They spent a week outside of Marseilles in an assembly area where they awaited all of their combat equipment. Leavy and two other men went into town one night and entered a bar filled with a dozen soldiers from different Allied armies. They sat with a staff sergeant who offered different tips for battle such as keep your feet warm and dry, and to throw their gas mask away, but keep the carrying case. However, the major takeaway from the conversation was the idea that in order to come out alive, one must act like every single enemy shot is aimed personally at you. Take precautions and focus on getting out alive. Their journey to the front was delayed by a few weeks. He suspects that the top brass had no confidence in the combat effectiveness of the former ASTP members.

Eugene T. Leavy was introduced to combat as the 398th Infantry Regiment, 100th Infantry Division quickly advanced behind the retreating Germans. While driving his Jeep, careful in avoiding the rain-filled shell holes, he straddled a crater and heard a loud explosion just behind him. The Jeep behind him had hit a mine in the road and was mortally wounded. Combat deaths are nothing like he has seen in movies. The man did not die instantly and in silence, but rather, he called for his mother and wailed in pain, bleeding profusely. Leavy grew up in that instant and he would see many more deaths in combat, including that of his friend Charlie Large. Each night, the next day's operational instruction came out and had to be delivered to the line companies. Leavy drove through the dark without any source of artificial light along roads often covered with mines. He recalls driving back to his outfit one night under a heavy enemy mortar shelling. When he inspected his Jeep the following morning, he found that a piece of shrapnel had stopped inches away from ripping through the seat and into his back. His job beat being a rifleman, as at least he was not shot at every night. One town that stands out to him as a member of the 100th Division is Bitche, France. The division liberated the city which was a fortified stronghold at the end of the Maginot Line [Annotator's Note: a series of defensive fortifications roughly paralleling the Franco-German border built by France in the 1930s]. The mayor of the town adopted the division in a show of gratitude for liberating his city. It did not take very long for one of the wise ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] men to say, “If the mayor of Bitche adopted us, that makes us the Sons of Bitche!” They then flanked the Third Army as part of the Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes CounterOffensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] and were tasked with preventing German forces from breaking through and reaching Antwerp [Annotator’s Note: Antwerp, Belgium]. As they approached the Neckar River to take the city of Stuttgart [Annotator’s Note: Stuttgart, Germany], the 100th was pulled back into Backnang, Germany to allow free French forces the honor.

As the war was nearing its end, Eugene T. Leavy and a friend went into Backnang [Annotator’s Note: Backnang, Germany] and met two women on bicycles. After spending the day together, Leavy secretly followed one of the women home to find out where she lived. After a few days, he returned to the house and asked her for a second date. The two would go on to be married after the war ended. At the time of their meeting, the girl’s father was in a British POW [Annotator's Note: prisoner of war] camp and her brother was in an American POW camp, having been captured by Leavy’s own division [Annotator's Note: the 100th Infantry Division]. After VE Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945], there was some talk about being sent to Japan, but those rumors never came to pass. Again, Leavy believes it was because of the ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program; generally referred to just by the initials ASTP; a program designed to educate massive numbers of soldiers in technical fields such as engineering and foreign languages and to commission those individuals at a fairly rapid pace in order to fill the need for skilled junior officers] background. The 100th Division was broken up and Leavy was transferred to the 78th Infantry Division in Berlin [Annotator’s Note: Berlin, Germany] where he became a driver for the lieutenant colonel of an ordnance outfit. The two became fast friends and Leavy often drove the colonel to see his girlfriend on his way to Backnang to do the same. Once it was time for the colonel to return to the United States., Leavy asked for, and was granted, a transfer to a military government outfit in Backnang so he could be with his fiancée. While working in Backnang and in Stuttgart [Annotator’s Note: Stuttgart, Germany], Leavy befriended a full colonel. Because of the non-fraternization policy in effect, Leavy could not marry his fiancée. However, most of the MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] in Backnang ignored this order and only issued warnings to G.I.s [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier] who were seen with German women. The policy was modified to allow for fraternization with locals who had received “social passes”. Leavy was placed in charge of issuing these and issued the very first one to his wife-to-be. Leavy learned much about the German military from his in-laws. He learned from his brother-in-law that because of strict ammunition rationing, the Germans could not fire on all targets. Leavy says this probably saved his life a time or two.

After meeting his future wife and her German family, Eugene T. Leavy began to understand the geo-politics of Europe and dropped his assumption that all Germans were Nazi fanatics. Once while visiting his fiancée and her family, he met a thin Jewish man named Ernst Steinhorn who had survived the Nazi death camps because of his skill as a carpenter. The rest of his family had been exterminated at Auschwitz [Annotator's Note: Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp complex in German occupied Oswiecim, Poland]. Steinhorn had been there to thank Leavy’s mother-in-law for feeding him and sneaking him food while he was working at a nearby slave camp. Leavy was amazed at this incredible act of charity and selflessness, a German woman helping a starving Jewish boy with no thoughts of being caught and punished for it. Leavy worked with the military government on the county level to ensure that former Nazis did not get into anywhere important and were restricted from working as anything but common laborers. Because the Nazis had kept such impeccable records, Leavy often knew who was a Nazi and who was not before ever speaking to them. While interviewing these people, he was struck by their honesty and learned that many joined the Nazi party only as a way to survive and gain access to better jobs. [Annotator’s Note: Leavy speaks at length about the pride he has in the infantry and says it is the only type of military unit capable of taking and holding land from the enemy during wartime.] He was in Nuremberg [Annotator’s Note: Nuremberg, Germany] during the war crimes trials in 1946, but was not directly involved. Though he did see Goring [Annotator's Note: German Reichsmarschall Hermann Wilhelm Göring, or Goering, commanded the German Air Force and was second only to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi chain of command] and some of the other high-level Nazis, he wished he had been older at the time so that he would have been able to understand what he was seeing.

Eugene T. Leavy talks about problems with the Russians in Berlin [Annotator’s Note: Berlin, Germany] while he was a member of the 78th Infantry Division. The Russians were allowed to run wild in the city and often hijacked American food and supply trucks with impunity until the Americans began mounting .50 caliber machine guns to the top of the trucks. He thought Eisenhower [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force; 34th President of the United States] was the greatest political military figure because he was able to convince significant military leaders to compromise. Leavy spoke of the different military figures including Montgomery [Annotator's Note: British Field Marshal Sir Bernard Law Montgomery] and Patton [Annotator's Note: US Army Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.]. Leavy violated his “get home in one piece” code one time while stationed in a building outside of Bitche [Annotator’s Note: Bitche, France]. Instead of taking precautions to stay alive, he foolishly walked across an open field and was caught in a mortar barrage.

Eugene T. Leavy was discharged in October 1947. With the Status of Forces Agreement of June 1947, Leavy was able to finally marry his fiancée. The two were married on 5 July of that year, surrounded by the colonel and many other high-ranking officials from Stuttgart [Annotator’s Note: Stuttgart, Germany]. Because of his close relationship with the colonel, it was arranged so that the newlywed couple could travel back to America aboard the same ship, a rarity at the time according to Leavy. His time spent as a member of the military government made his transition back into civilian life easy. It helped him from suffering from many of the same war-related mental health problems felt by others [Annotator's Note: post traumatic stress disorder; a mental health condition triggered by a terrifying event either experienced or witnessed]. He refused to take any government assistance or take advantage of the G.I. bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] upon returning home. Leavy became a repo man before getting into the business of selling cars. He had a successful, 43-year career selling cars to U.S. military service members.

Eugene T. Leavy has two most memorable experiences of World War 2 including the first time he witnessed death, and the appreciation shown by the French to the “Sons of Bitche” [Annotator’s Note: Bitche, France, where the mayor adopted the 100th Infantry Division who then donned the nickname the “Sons of Bitche”]. He fought in World War 2 because it was expected of young men at the time. The nuns at his parochial school instilled a sense of responsibility in him that he carried with him into combat. The war changed his life because he got married as a direct result of it. Upon returning home, he threw away all reminders of the war and focused on raising a family. Leavy is proud of his service and has learned to not dwell on many of the horrors he witnessed. He believes that the average American is losing the knowledge of World War 2 and what it meant. However, the nation learned how to treat its defeated enemies after World War 2 in a way that has made allies out of former enemies. Leavy believes there should be institutions like the National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana], and that we should continue to teach World War 2 to future generations.