Arthur Leach is 101 years old. Sometimes, age is just a number. Sometimes, it’s a story. Leach’s age is full of stories. When I interviewed Leach recently for The Sons of History’s collection of military interviews, I was given a bit more perspective into his age. Before we began recording our conversation, he told me his first car was a 1924 Model T that he bought for $18; gas was 16 cents per gallon. Leach, a fighter pilot for the U.S. Navy in World War II, enlisted in February 1942 during his final semester of college at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. He was informed he would be in uniform before he could walk across the graduation stage. After some negotiating with the Navy office and some local leaders, it was agreed he could finish college before leaving for the service. He graduated on June 8 and was in uniform …
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