How Leo B. Leonard and His Sons met with President Eisenhower

During the summer of 1940 the Army had their most ambitious war games prior to World War II. The setting was the newly named Ford Ord, near Monterey, California. Many of the soldiers involved in these war games used wooden rifles. There was little ammunition for the First World War cannons. Trucks were used as mock tanks. This exercise was to be the U.S. Army's first attempt at amphibious landing. As the troops came ashore from rowboats in Monterey Bay, trucks zoomed back and forth with soldiers shouting boom boom, pretending they were tank guns firing away! Above the beach line, crowds of local citizens yelled and applauded while the 32nd Infantry regimental Band played. That band was conducted by Staff Sergeant Leo Bradford Leonard.

The Army maneuvers were partially planned by Mark W. Clark, a brilliant officer from the office of the Chiefs of Staff in Washington D.C. With Col. Clark was his friend and classmate from the West Point Class of 1915, Lt. Col. Dwight David Eisenhower. Ike (as he was called) was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, and wondered if he would ever get a regimental command. With nothing official to do but watch, Ike wandered over to the band and chatted with Staff Sergeant Leo B. Leonard. He asked Leo if he could play a song called "Abdul a bul bul a mir", Ike's favorite song. Staff Sergeant Leonard said that most of the boys knew that song from their many visits to the local bars, but they did not have the music with them since it was not scheduled for the program that day.

Some Highlights of My Life by Florence Leonard as told to Leo D. Leonard

I was born March 15, 1912 in a house between G and H Streets in Salt Lake City, Utah- the youngest of five children.  In a way, my parents had almost two distinct families.  My brother, Phil and I were a year apart, while my brother Don was twenty years older and my sister Daff was eighteen years older.  Our brother Marcus was even older.  My parents were in their forties when I was born, and we profited from the financial success my father had long ago acquired.  My father owned Robbins Electric, later called Central Electric.  Primarily a commercial electrical construction firm (Logan street lights, the Boston building.), he also did some residential work.

Both my mother Florence May Phillips, and my father, Le Grand B.  Robbins came from pioneer stock. My father’s mother was Jane Adeline Young, the daughter of Joseph Young, brother to the prophet Brigham Young, and himself the President of the Seven Presidents of the Seventy.  He was called to that position by the prophet and President, Joseph Smith Jr. My mother and especially my father were strong temple goers, father working in the temple for many years.

Graduating from LDS High School several years behind President Hinckley, I stayed and attended LDS College, later transferring to the University of Utah.  I’m afraid I was too young to take school seriously.  I pledged to Tri Delta Sorority, joined Wasatch Mountain Club and gave very little attention to class work.  I was also dividing my time between work and school.

Picture 1: Leo with his trumpet at Fort Douglas in Salt Lake City, Utah.