Capt. Leo Thomas Hury

Biography

Leo T. Hury was born on March 19, 1920 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA as Leo Thomas Hury. He was born to the late Leo Bernard and Kate Hury. He was raised in Jacksonville during the Great Depression. He graduated from Andrew Jackson High School, where he played football and was voted most popular, by his senior class. In 1941 he was still at the University of Florida. He had already enjoyed two years Reserved Officers Training Corps and was now accepted into advanced ROTC. During his senior year he held the rank of 1st. Lieutenant. On Sunday December 7, 1941 he was hitchiking back to Gainesville when he heard the news of the Pearl Harbor attack. Almost 18 months later he graduated and afterwards he had to report to Camp Blanding were he was inducted August 2, 1943.

Military Service

On August 7, 1943 he was promoted to Corporal in order to attend Officer Candidate School at Fort Benning, Georgia. After receiving his gold 2nd Lieutenant bars he was to report to the 86th Infantry Division. When the 86th was chosen to train for fighting in the Pacific he was chosen to be a replacement for officers killed or wounded in Europe and on May 12, 1944 he shipped out of New York. During the Normandy campaign he acted as a platoon leader for L Company and was lightly wounded by some shrapnel from a German "potato-masher". After this first campaign he was, much to his relief, transferred to the Mortar Section of M Company, a Heavy Weapons Company. All through training Leo Hury had been in a similar role and he never understood why he was first assigned to a regular rifle company.

While on occupational duty he was promoted to Captain and he was to govern the area his company occupied. The always returning small disputes and other small problems learned he never wanted to be involved in politics when back home! Despite that he enjoyed his time as commanding officer of M-Company, 330th Infantry Regiment. He easily got the 85 points needed to get back home and arrived in the US on January 4, 1946. A small navy band greeted him and he was offered steak and ice cream. Less than 48 hours later he was discharged and on a train home.

Personal Items in my collection

In his early 80's Leo Hury realised that maybe one day in the future his grandchildren or other family members would wonder about his military service and he would no longer be there to answer questions. He wrote down his memoirs of WW2 and appropriately titled the book 'What did you do during the war granddaddy?'. Click on the left picture below to read a few excerpts from these memoirs or click on the right picture to read the full version, in the center, two booklets of Leo Hury I got, thanks to his son Thomas Hury.

Click on the images to see and read more from Leo Hury

excerpts from
Leo Hury's Memoirs

two original booklets
from Leo Hury

full version of
Leo Hury's Memoirs

Gallery

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