Leo Denault served with the 43rd Bomb Group [Annotator’s Note: 403rd Bombardment Squadron, 43rd Bombardment Group]. He was a staff sergeant. He was a radio operator and gunner. He was in high school when he heard about the Pearl Harbor attack [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He finished high school and went to college for a year before he went into the service. His brother, Frank, got his wings the day after Pearl Harbor. Denault got a scholarship to the University of Alabama [Annotator's Note: in Tuscaloosa, Alabama] for football, but he went to a school in New England instead. He knew he would not make it four years in college without being drafted. He did not want to be an infantryman. He wanted to be in the Air Force. He respected the guys in the infantry. He had a younger brother, Richard, who was in the Navy. Denault grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts. His brother Frank was in the Air Force and that influenced him. He wanted to be a pilot. Richard was a sonar man on a destroyer in the North Atlantic.

Leo Denault finished school in June and went into the service on 16 August 1943. He went to basic training in Gulfport, Mississippi. One day, their physical training consisted of boxing. Every Friday night they had boxing. Denault was a good boxer. He was told that he would get a steak dinner and a weekend pass. They had to do guard duty in camp. They started doing guard duty by hiding in the trees. They had a parade and people were lined up on both sides. He was shipped to Iowa State College [Annotator’s Note: in Ames, Iowa]. On Saturday mornings, they would have a two-mile race or a mile obstacle course. He did well in his studies. They had flight training. They practiced by landing in fields. Denault scared the flight instructor on one landing. He did not get the highest marks flying the plane. He decided to be a navigator because he was good at math. After that, they went to Santa Ana, California.

Leo Denault remembers they would post every day who qualified. [Annotator’s Note: He was in training in Santa Ana, California.] He qualified and passed all his tests. Things were winding down in Europe at this time. The standards would go up every day. People would wash out every day. This was to get into navigator school. Denault came quite close to making it in. Then he went to gunnery school in Yuma, Arizona and radio school in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He made it through radio school. Next, he was sent to Westover Field in Massachusetts which was only about eight miles from his house. Denault grew up around there. Westover had the best service. They had big band dancing. Girls from all over came in to dance. He finished his training on B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] and he was supposed to go to Europe. By then, though, they did not need any more men in Europe so they were reassigned to go to the Pacific. They did not have anything to do on the base except fly. When he was not flying, he would go home. They were assigned to a crew. They had simulated training flights. They had to get used to each other and operate as a unit. Their pilot was great and he held them all together. The co-pilot could not fly the plane.

Leo Denault remembers his pilot would give them flight time. He decided Denault and the engineer were supposed to fly the plane if anything happened to him. The co-pilot was always getting into trouble. The bombardier knew his stuff and he was tough. The navigator was a Yale [Annotator’s Note: Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut] graduate and his family owned the Kleenex company. The pilot and navigator were gentlemen and the bombardier and co-pilot were street kids. The engineer was from West Virginia and he could tear an engine apart and put it back together. Their gunner was a nice guy, he was a gentleman. The tail gunner was a character, and they thought he was a gangster, but he turned out to run the police department. It was a good crew, and they had a lot of fun. The nose gunner was another perfect gentleman. They flew together the whole time they were in the service. They were shipped to the West Coast to go overseas. They were put into B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] instead of B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber]. They had about 20 flights in the B-24s to get used to them. Then they flew them overseas. They flew to Hawaii then to New Guinea. The B-24 was faster and it could fly higher than the B-17. It also carried a bigger bomb load. The B-17 was a great plane, especially for the radio operator. Denault had his own room behind the cockpit. When he got on the B-24, he had a small desk and a seat right next to the bomb bay. The B-17 was a stable airplane whereas if the B-24 was hit, it was going down.

Leo Denault flew from Hawaii to New Guinea. They went over in July 1944. They were on Biak [Annotator’s Note: Biak, Papua New Guinea] for a while. It was a coral rock. They lived in tents. There was one Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] that would fly over after it would rain. They would fly missions up to the Philippines and would stop at Peleliu [Annotator's Note: Peleliu, Palau]. They slept on cots. The tents they stayed in had a floor, and steps, and were up off the ground. Sometimes they would pick up new planes and fly them back. Then they were stationed in the Philippines. The Japs blew up the dam and they had to makeshift water. They could not shower when they wanted to. Between flights, they were building the camps. They made sidewalks because the Philippines were mud. When they needed new planes, they would fly to Biak and pick them up. They heard Australian soldiers singing because they were going home.

Leo Denault was shipped to Ieshima [Annotator’s Note: Ieshima, Japan]. They were still clearing the jungle. This is when he gained respect for infantrymen. The Japanese were dug in all around the island. When they walked around, there were shoes with bones in them that had not been cleaned up. There were battleships with 16-inch guns that could blow holes in the island. The Japanese had hollowed out a coral hill and made a fort out of it. The Americans shot flamethrowers [Annotator's Note: ranged incendiary device that projects a controllable jet of fire] in there. The charred bones were not cleaned up. This was the most war Denault had seen. He was there for a few months. They were getting ready to hit Japan. He knew his next move would be real war. They were going to support the ground troops, and the ships would hit the Japanese homeland. While they were doing that, the atomic bombs were dropped [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] and the Japanese surrendered. If they would have invaded the Japanese homeland, thousands of troops would have died. A lot of Japanese died, but a lot of Americans did not. The realism of war hit Denault at this point. Denault had been overseas for five months. He did not have enough points to go home [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home], so he was shipped up to Japan. They were stationed about 20 miles northwest of Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan]. There were piles of aluminum for making planes. After they had been there for a month, a bunch of ambulances showed up. They were picking up guys who had malaria [Annotator’s Note: a serious and sometimes fatal disease of high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like illness].

Leo Denault was always singing in the shower. He loved music. They put on a show. They built a stage with a roof on it. The men were asked if they were interested in playing in the show. They had a great band. Denault became a singer in the band. They put on a show. The 1st Cavalry Division wanted them to come to Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan] and put on the show. They were flying guys to the Philippines to go home. The pilot got lost. Denault had to be picked up Tokyo. Then he gave the fix to the pilot. A half hour later, the pilot got lost again. Finally, they hit the southern tip of Japan. The pilot was following the railroad tracks. Denault was assigned to flying duty. He decided to keep to the ground until the war was over. He was assigned to a rest hotel in Tokyo. The guys would come in for two weeks for R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation]. They could see the palace from the hotel. Tokyo was rubble, but the palace and this hotel were intact. Denault had his own room. He was in charge of the officers’ club and the enlisted men’s club. He was in charge of the Japanese bartenders. He had to make sure they had beer. American beer came in once a month. Denault had never driven before. He had to get checked out on a jeep. He had to drive a truck instead.

Leo Denault remembers there was a little town next to them with a geisha district [Annotator’s Note: geisha district, with hostesses in colorful kimonos, often sighted on the wooden Tatsumi Bridge, or amid upscale Japanese restaurants and boutiques]. Guys always wanted to go to the geisha district. Denault drove them out there. There were MPs [Annotator's Note: military police] walking up to keep guys out. It looked like an Army going in for an attack with all the guys sneaking across the field. They would open the officers’ club at five o’clock in the evening. They would take the beer out of the refrigerators and take it up to the clubs. American beer was limited. Denault would give the men chips for the American beer. There were two captains in charge of the hotel. They had an interpreter. She was a nice girl. Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan] was nothing but rubble. The citizens were told the Americans were terrible. The people looked like they were half-starved. While Denault explored Tokyo, he never saw another GI [Annotator's Note: government issue; also a slang term for an American soldier].

Leo Denault liked Westover Field [Annotator’s Note: Westover Field, Massachusetts] the best. He liked Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan] the best. He did not like the Philippines. In the Philippines, they were building the base up and the enlisted men were always working between flights. At the other bases, they did not have to do that and they would be able to shower. Denault did not have any interactions with the civilians in the Philippines. Denault was a radio operator. He had to let the different bases know they were coming. He kept ground contact with various stations. He used regular language. Some missions were seven hours long. They flew around the Pacific, but did not see anything. By that time, the Japanese had pulled back. Sometimes they would take sandwiches with them. They usually flew over 10,000 feet. They were not up at 20,000 feet too often. Over 10,000 feet they would go on oxygen. The oxygen masks were uncomfortable. If they had to go to the bathroom, they went out of the bomb bay.

Leo Denault was discharged on 10 March 1946. He came back on a troop carrier ship. It took seven days. It was awful. He was sick getting on it. There was a long line getting on it. He ended up on the bottom deck. There were four cots stacked up. He was on the bottom cot. He had a duffle bag on the cot with him. He fell asleep and did not wake up until the next morning. They stayed on deck all day. They could not move around too much because the ship was listing too much. They were happy to get to Seattle [Annotator’s Note: Seattle, Washington]. Then they got on a train. Denault went to Fort Devens, Massachusetts. He thought about joining the Reserves. He used 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] to go back to school. He worked weekends when he went to high school. When he was young, he would pick strawberries. He had a job mowing an orchard. When he got older, he caddied, then he worked in a grocery store. Before he went into the service, he worked in a butter store. He beat his older brother Frank home and he got out before his younger brother as well. He wrote to his parents. He did not stay in touch with his brothers. His mother would write him and tell him what his brothers were doing. His parents could not afford to send him to college. During the week, they stayed home and studied. Denault became a senior staff scientist where he worked.

Leo Denault remembers his brother wanted to fly. His brother was always making airplanes. He went to school to be an engineer, and then he went into the Air Force. He could fly anything. He had no fear. He built his own bike. His brother would go down the hill with no brakes. Denault met his wife while he was in college. All his flights were the same. He remembers getting to Tokyo [Annotator’s Note: Tokyo, Japan] and how depressed the city was. It was like going to work every day. He got on the plane and returned to base. They never had plane trouble. The pilot and the engineer would go through the plane and check everything. Denault felt it was his duty to fight in the war. He always wanted to get his education. He took extra courses and got out in less than three years. He had five years 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]. The war gave him more responsibility and he thought more about people’s lives. Today he wants to know why people go to war. If people have any idea about the war, they should be able to talk about their differences instead of going to war. He thinks they should build a fence around the Middle East and let them kill each other or get along.