This Military Service Page was created/owned by
MAJ Jeffrey Meyer (Cobra 6)
to remember
Meyer, Leo John, COL USA(Ret).
If you knew or served with this Soldier and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Forest Hills, NY
Last Address Delray Beach, FL
Date of Passing Jan 12, 2006
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Leo and I were good friends at the 116th MI Group before he went to Vietnam. We generally told him he was a damn fool to go since he certainly didn't have to. Further, he wanted a combat billet so he was going to volunteer for Airborne and Special Forces. We chided him that he simply wanted a third CIB and that he would probably come home with his toes pointed up.
I left active duty in July 1968 and went to work for Department of the Army more or less "down the hall" from the 116th. One day there was a hubub in the hall and I heard someone calling my name. Leo burst into my office in his Class-A uniform, boots, and, of course, his green beret, with his ribbons running from his right pocket up to his lapel. He said, "See, I'm back and both my feet are flat on the floor." We went over to the Fort McNair Officers Club and had "a few."
After 33 years in uniform, Leo Meyer enjoyed retirement. He and his wife Vera traveled, purchased their first house and traveled some more, sold a house and became "Snow Birds"; buying two more homes. In support of his art work as a Scrimshander, he set out to go whaling with the whalers of the Azores; onto the ice flows of the Bering Strait with the Yupik walrus hunters of Savoonga, St Lawrence Island, Alaska; and safari in Kenya eastern Africa - always only with a camera.
In 1984 Leo Meyer was one of two hundred and thirty men awarded three Combat Infantryman Badges (CIB), honored by the US Army National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Georgia. A monument at the museum is dedicated to all the men who are recipients of three Combat Infantryman Badges.
Colonel Meyer was inurned at Arlington National Cemetery in May 2006. At the time of his death he was survived by his wife of more than 62 years, two children and two grandchildren.
Colonel Meyer was posthumously inducted into the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame, Ft Benning, GA. on March 27, 2009.
But before all that...
New York National Guard In 1935 Leo Meyer joined the New York National Guard Cadet Corps and began attending drill as a drummer in the Regimental Field Music (Band), with the 102nd Engineers in Manhattan and as a mounted trooper with Squadron 'C', 101st Cavalry in Brooklyn. In October 1937 he enlisted into Company "B", 102nd Engineer Regiment, but maintained his status in the NYNG Cadet Corps to continue with the cavalry. By May 1940 he was a corporal with the 102nd Engineers and when called to active duty with the 102nd, he ended his NYNGCC association.
Federalized In October 1940 the 102nd Engineer Regiment, 27th Division, New York National Guard, was called to active federal service by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The division moved from New York to Fort McClellan, Alabama for training. Specifically, the 102d Engineer Regiment marched to the train, seven blocks down 34th Street to Pennsylvania Station while the band played Al Jolson hits like Toot Toot Tootsie Good Bye and Alabamy Bound. During the next fourteen months the division participated in maneuver exercises in Tennessee, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama. Meyer was assigned duties as 'B' Company Clerk (Cpl) and Company Supply Sergeant (Sgt), 1st Battalion and Regimental Message Center Chief (S/Sgt), and 1st Battalion and Regimental Sergeant Major (M/Sgt).
In November 1941, five weeks after his 24th birthday and two days after becoming the Regiment's Sergeant Major, Meyer reenlisted as a Regular Army master sergeant. Twenty-five days later after the 7 December attack on Pearl Harbor the United States declared war on Japan on 8 December 1941. On 9 December Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. On 14 December 1941 the 27th Division was deployed to California and by early March to the Territory of Hawaii in the Pacific Theater of Operations.
WW II From November 1941 to November 1942 Meyer served as 102nd Engineer Regimental Sergeant Major in Alabama and the re-designated 102nd Engineer (Combat) Battalion Sergeant Major in the Pacific Theater of Operations. In March 1943 he graduated from the U.S. Army Air Forces Officer Candidate School in Miami Beach, Florida. After commissioning, Lieutenant Meyer was assigned to the 26th College Training Detachment, Mt. Union College in Alliance, Ohio. In May 1944 Meyer transferred to Childress Army Air Field, Texas. After several months involved with preparing air crewman to fight in the war, Meyer volunteered for the Infantry and was sent to Fort Benning for basic infantry officer training. Later, during a cadre assignment at the 60th Infantry Replacement Training Center (IRTC), Camp Blanding, Florida, he volunteered for another combat zone tour.
Historians have paid little attention to combat near the end of WWII after Leyte, Mindoro, and Luzon. The battle for the island of Mindanao during Operation VICTOR V in the Southern Philippines Campaign was some of the most horrific combat under the most insufferable weather and terrain conditions of the war in the Pacific. In June 1945 1stLt Leo Meyer was serving as commanding officer of Company "A", 34th Infantry, 24th Infantry Division on Mindanao. Meyer earned his first Combat Infantryman Badge, two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart.
Post War In 1946 after serving in occupied Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan, Captain Meyer 'mustered out' of the Army and returned to civilian life. He enlisted in the Organized Reserve Corps and by June 1947 he was back on active duty as a Regular Army master sergeant. While working as an instructor with the 1242nd ASU, HQ, New York District, Organized Reserve Corps he received his high school GED and applied for the Regular Army Warrant Officer Program and simultaneously, reinstatement of his Army of the United States officer's commission. He received both and put the warrant acceptance in his hip pocket and reinstated as a First Lieutenant on active duty.
Reactivation He was assigned to the HQ 7th U.S. Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. He served in the 3rd Battalion 7th Infantry in Korea earning his second Combat Infantryman Badge and Purple Heart with Task Force Dog which relieved 1st Battalion 1st Marines to join the fight supporting the retreating 1st Marine Division;s movement back to the beach during the final days of the battle of the Chosin Reservoir.
Post Korea assignments were as an advisor to the Massachusetts National Guard in Quincy, Massachusetts; Sub-area Staff Officer, Western Region, USAREUR in Bad Kreuznach, Germany; Operations Officer at the Army Disciplinary Barracks in New Cumberland, Pennsylvania; and Post Operations Staff Officer, Fort Dix, New Jersey.
Retire or Reversion to Regular Army In 1961 Major Meyer reached 20 years active federal service and mandatory retirement for reserve officers on the active duty list. He was not ready to hang up the uniform and pulled his Regular Army Warrant Officer acceptance letter from his hip pocket and reverted to Chief Warrant Officer 4.
As a Warrant Officer he was assigned as an Intelligence Technician in Military Intelligence, Counter Intelligence Corps. From 1961 to 1968 Meyer served in the 1st US Army Support Group New York City, New York; 108th Intelligence Corps Group Camden, New Jersey; 401st Counter Intelligence Corps Detachment Honolulu, Hawaii; and the 116th Military Intelligence Group Washington, D. C. In 1967 he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Military Science from the University of Maryland. In 1968 he was assigned temporary duty in the Office of the Secretary of the Defense for Intelligence to update/re-write DoD security regulations. Also in 1968 he volunteered again for service in a combat zone.
Too Old For What? As many of his Korean War friends were now brigade commanders or general officers, Leo Meyer felt he too should continue to contribute and volunteered for combat. In 1968, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Meyer was assigned to Headquarters, 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, in Nha Trang, Vietnam. In his 27th year in the active Army and at age 51, Meyer graduated from the RVN Special Forces parachute school, earning his jump wings and Green Beret. In February 1969, working with the 5th Mobile Strike Force B55 he earned his 3rd Combat Infantryman Badge for action on a seek and clear mission against the Viet Cong in the Rung Sat Special Zone, an area in I Corps under the auspicesof the RVN and US navies. In March 1969, while in Vietnam, he was promoted to colonel in the Army Reserve.
And then... Retirement
From 1969 to 1971, CWO4 Meyer was assigned to the 109th Military Intelligence Group at Ft Mead, Md and in Washington, D.C. with the 116th Military Intelligence Group serving as the Group Executive Officer. In 1971, at the end of more than 33 years in an Army uniform, he retired as a colonel.
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS AND BADGES
Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB) 3rd award
Soldiers Medal
Bronze Star Medal 3rd award
Purple Heart 2nd award
Meritorious Service Medal
Air Medal
Joint Services Commendation Medal
Army Commendation Medal 3rd award
Navy Commendation Medal w/combat V
Good Conduct Medal
American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal w/3Battle Stars
WWII Victory Medal
Army of Occupation Medal (Japan)
National Defense Service Medal 2nd award
Korean Service Medal w/4 Battle Stars
Vietnam Service Medal w/3 Battle Stars
Armed Forces Reserve Medal w/Gold Hour Glass (3d award)
Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry Medal w/Bronze Star
Philippine Liberation Ribbon w/Bronze Service Star
United Nations Service Medal
Vietnam Campaign Medal
Republic of Korea War Service Medal
U.S. Parachutist Badge
Vietnamese Special Forces Parachutist Badge.
UNIT AWARDS
Distinguished Unit Citation (Presidential Unit Citation)for the battle of SEGOK (3Bn/7IN/3rdID- Hill 717, Korea 1951)
Meritorious Unit Commendation (5th SFG(A) Vietnam 1968-69)
Philippine Presidential Unit Citation (1BN/34IN/24thID WWII 1945)
Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation (3BN/7IN/3dID Korea 1950-52)
Vietnam Cross of Gallantry w/Palm (5th SFG(A) Vietnam 1968-69)
Vietnam Civil Actions Medal 1st Class (5th SFG(A)Vietnam 1968-69)
Executing the last PCS "A Cottonbaler by God, damn fine Soldier"
Meyer, Leo J Colonel US Army Date of Birth: 10/06/1917 Date of Death: 01/12/2006 Buried at: Section 8-J Row 9 Site 2 Arlington National Cemetery
Description On 1 November Chinese elements were identified south of the Changjin Reservoir, and within ten days twelve divisions of the Chinese Communist Forces were identified. In the northwest, strong enemy attacks against the Eighth Army smashed the ROK divisions. Very hard fighting took place near Ch'osan, Unsan, and Tokch'on. While the 24th Division pulled back to Chongju on the west coast, the 1st Cavalry and 2d Divisions fought along the Ch'ongch'on River. In the air over Korea, U.N. pilots were opposed for the first time by speedy Russian MIG-15 Jet fighters.
By 10 November, as the Chinese attacks were abating, the Eighth Army and the X Corps conducted only small-scale operations, and a comparative lull hung over much of the front. By 21 November elements of the U.S. 7th Division occupied Hyesanjin on the Yalu River in northeastern Korea, the most northerly point to be reached by U.S. forces during the war. The ROK Capital Division meanwhile progressed rapidly up the east coast to the Naman-So-dong area. By 24 November the U.N. positions extended from So-dong in the northeast to Hyesanjin on the Yalu, and thence in a southwesterly direction through the areas around Sang-ni, Handae, Yudam-ni, Yongwen, Ipsok, Patch'on and south of Chongju to the Yellow Sea.
Previous to the entry of Chinese forces in North Korea, MacArthur had ordered the Eighth Army and the X Corps on 24 October to attack toward the Manchurian border and restore peace in Korea before the onset of winter. The difficulty of securing adequate logistical support delayed the attack. In the latter part of the month, brief clashes with Chinese troops posed a new threat. The purpose and extent of the Chinese intervention was not yet clear; but in the face of this new opposition, Walker had withdrawn his extended forces back to the lower bank of the Ch'onch'on River, leaving only a small bridgehead above Sinanju.
The fact of Chinese participation in the conflict caused MacArthur to reconsider his plans for an all-out attack to the Yalu River, but not to abandon them. Walker's forces were to move northward through western and central Korea, while Almond's troops were to attack to the northwest to cut the enemy line of communications and give maximum assistance to the Eighth Army. On 24 November the Eighth Army, with the ROK II Corps, launched its planned offensive. For the first twenty-four hours little enemy opposition was encountered, but on the next day enemy troops initiated a violent counterattack against the Eighth Army in the mountainous territory surrounding the central North Korean town of Tokch'on. The X Corps began its attack early on 27 November, and had made slight advances before evening, when a second enemy force, moving down both sides of the Changjin Reservoir, struck at the 1st Marine Division and elements of the U.S. 7th Division.
It was quickly apparent that the bulk of the enemy forces were organized Chinese Communist units. It was now evident to the UN Commend that the Chinese had amassed two large armies in northern Korea, by marching them from Manchuria under cover of darkness and expertly camouflaging them during the day. They were comparatively safe from detection by UN air observers in the rugged mountain terrain, and UN aircraft were prohibited from making reconnaissance flights across the frontier. Thus the strength of the attacking Chinese forces came as a surprise to most of the U.N. Command.
The main enemy effort was directed against the ROK II Corps, which collapsed under the weight of the Chinese assault. As the Communists strove to extend their breakthrough of the U.N. line, Walker rushed his reserve units (the 1st Cavalry Division, the Turkish Brigade, and the British 27th Commonwealth and 29th Independent Infantry Brigades) to the area, but failed to stem the Communist advance. Assaulted by wave after wave of enemy troops, the Eighth Army front withdrew south across the Ch'ongch'on River. These forces, fighting hand to hand with the enemy along the river banks and retreating over reads choked with troops, refugees, trucks, and tanks, suffered heavy losses. The U.S. 2d Division wee assigned to fight a delaying action until other units could retire and regroup in defensive positions near P'yongyang. On 5 December the Eighth Army fell back from P'yongyang to positions about 25 miles south of the city. By the middle of December it had withdrawn below the 38th parallel and formed a defensive perimeter north and east of Seoul.
On 27 November 1950 the Chinese began their offensive against the X Corps, attacking the Marine and 7th Division elements in the Changjin Reservoir area with six divisions. Since the most northerly UN units-the ROK I Corps, the U.S. 17th Infantry Regiment, and other elements at the Yalu-might be cut off by the weight of the Chinese offensive, the X Corps was forced to withdraw these elements. Troops at the reservoir were also ordered to fall back. MacArthur then ordered Almond to concentrate the X Corps in the Hamhung-Hungnam area; and early in December directed the Corps to withdraw to South Korea by a waterborne evacuation.
Most of the Corps reached the port of Hungnam without serious incident. However, some 14,000 men of the 1st Marine and 7th Infantry Divisions were trapped in the Hagaru-Kot'o area and were forced to fight their way to the coast along a narrow escape route. As the main column progressed along the road, a provisional battalion of marines and soldiers, aided by close and efficient air support, cleared the Chinese Communist forces from the high ground which dominated the road. Almond sent Task Force Dog, a reinforced battalion of the 3d Division, forward to Chinhung to relieve the Marine battalion there and to assist the withdrawal by providing support and rear guard action. Air Force, Navy, and Marine cargo planes parachuted daily airdrops of ammunition, food, and medicines to the column, and evacuated battle casualties. Fighter elements bombed and strafed the enemy-held mountainsides and Communist troop concentrations. On 9 December 1950 the two forces met in the mountains a few miles south of Kot'o and both moved toward Hamhung to be evacuated.
The water movement of the X Corps from North Korea required 173 vessels. About 350,000 measurement tons of cargo, including 17,500 vehicles, were salvaged; some 105,000 troops and more than 98,000 civilians were evacuated from Hungnam, Songjin, and Wonsan. Evacuation began on 11 December and was completed on 24 December, despite constant enemy fire and observation.
The Hungnam evacuation left North Korea once again controlled by Communist forces. Before the enemy renewed his attacks, General Walker was killed in an auto accident north of Seoul (23 December 1950). On 26 December Lt. Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway succeeded him in command of the Eighth Army in Korea.
On 30 December MacArthur warned the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff that the Chinese Communist forces could drive the U.N. forces out of Korea if they so desired. The United States, although anxious to avoid a full-scale war in Korea, was also determined to resist the Chinese-North Korean aggressors. Therefore the Joint Chiefs ordered MacArthur to defend his positions; to retire, if forced to, through a series of defensive positions as far back as the former Pusan Perimeter Line; to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy; and to maintain his units intact. If necessary to avoid severe losses, he was authorized to withdraw to Japan.
Within this framework of operations, MacArthur invested General Ridgway with complete authority to plan and execute operations in Korea, and ceased the close supervision which he had formerly exercised over the Eighth Army and the X Corps. The latter, which had heretofore been a separate command, was assigned to the Eighth Army, thus placing all U.N. ground forces under that army's control. By this time fifteen nations of the U.N. had troops in Korea-the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, South Africa, France, Greece, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Thailand, Turkey, Belgium, and Sweden. As 1951 began, U.N. ground forces numbered about 495,000, of which 270,000 were ROK troops. The U.N. Command estimated that the enemy had about 486,000 men, 21 Chinese and 12 North Korean divisions, committed to the Korean front, and more than a million enemy troops stationed in reserve near the Yalu.
In late December, Ridgway, in establishing the defensive line along the 38th parallel, concentrated the bulk of the Eighth Army in the central and western sectors because of the obvious enemy concentration above Seoul. The west flank was held by the I Corps; the central sector by the IX Corps; and the ROK I, II, and III Corps held the eastern mountainous sector. The X Corps was reorganizing near Pusan. The 1st Marine Division, until recently a part of the X Corps, was held in Eighth Army reserve.
At daybreak on 1 January 1951, after a night of mortar and artillery bombardment, the enemy launched an attack all along the U.N. line. The main effort was directed against the U.S. I and IX Corps in the west and central sectors. A force of seven Chinese armies and two North Korean corps pushed deeply into the U.N. line toward Seoul in the west and Wonju in the center.
As the offensive gained momentum, Ridgway ordered the U.N. forces to fall back to a line which ran along the south bank of the frozen Han River to Yangp'yang, through Hongch'on and Chunmunjin to the Sea of Japan. A delaying force remained around Seoul to deny the enemy use of the Han River bridges. When the attacking forces, following up their initial success, crossed the Han to the east and west of Seoul, it became clear that the Seoul bridgehead could not be held any longer. Ridgway, following a policy of rolling with the punch rather then risking destruction by defending in place, decided to withdraw south to a line in the vicinity of the 37th parallel on 3 January. This line ran from P'yongt'aek, east through Ansong, northeast to Wonju, and in an irregular trace to the east coast town of Samch'ok. When Seoul fell on 4 January, the port of Inch'on was also evacuated.
After the fall of Seoul, Chinese attacks tapered off in the west. Many enemy units were shifted eastward so as to be in position to attack southwestward behind the U.S. I and IX Corps, and capture Wonju and the railroad and highway between Hongch'on and Pusan, the main U.N. north-south supply route. Wonju was abandoned by U.N. forces on 7 January. By 10 January large numbers of the enemy had phased through the gap and into the defensive zone of the ROK III Corps. To meet this threat Ridgway ordered the 1st Marine Division to prevent the enemy penetration from north of the Andong-Yongdok road on the east, and to protect the supply routes of the ROK units.
In the western sector, which was comparatively quiet, Ridgway planned Operation WOLFHOUND, a reconnaissance in force in the I Corps sector, to reestablish contact and secure more exact information about the enemy. On 15 January the task force-the 27th Infantry Regiment, reinforced-advanced northward along the Seoul highway toward Osan. On the 16th it reached Suwon with practically no opposition. Satisfied by the reconnaissance, the U.N. Command ordered the task force to withdraw south.
By the third week in January the situation in the central and eastern sectors had eased, and pressure on our troops was gradually decreasing. However, although quiet prevailed on the front, air reconnaissance revealed that the enemy was accumulating reserves of supplies and bringing up thousands of replacements.