Rank / Rating: F1-Fireman First Class
LeRoy went to Maryhill School for eight years. When he was eleven years old he drove the horse and buggy to school. The horse was put in the barn at Maryhill during the day. He loved to play all the games at school: kick the can, pump pump pull away, softball, marbles, and Anti-I-Over. Along with other students, he helped build a very long ice path for sledding for all in the large two room school house twenty in each room Every school day started with Mass. The classroom for the older children had a large blackboard which was slid up to convert the room into the chapel for Mass.
At home, Lee helped with the heavy chores on the farm-helping to milk eight cows, feeding chickens, hogs and horses. He would help harness the horses when they were used for work on the farm. His older brother, Clarence and his dad helped, too. They and his sisters all worked at picking corn by hand, threshing oats and putting up hay.
Lee was a very good mechanic, working on farm machinery and a Model T. when he was 16 years old, he had his own car. It needed extensive repairs. LeRoy made it run. When he got the car running, he took my sisters and me to Quimby for a movie. The next year he cut the top off a Model T to make a convertible. One Saturday night he rolled the car but lived to tell about it.
In 1939 the Reinert's bought a 1939 Allis Chalmer tractor and an old one row corn picker. That fall LeRoy and Dad kept the corn picker running. Older brothers worked for neighbors. In 1940 my dad, Andrew, bought a green two row corn picker. John Deere, I think. The new corn picker was mounted on the 1939 Allis Chalmer tractor. LeRoy didn't go to high school, so he had plenty of time to keep the machinery working. I le enjoyed carrying a shot gun when he ran the corn picker. He was a great shot, picked off lots of rabbits and pheasants.
In his youth, LeRoy and his brothers, sisters and neighbors spent many hours swimming in the Zimmer Water hole located by the nearby county bridge. LeRoy fished in Zimmer's pasture creek and made fishing poles out of willow branches for all of us younger kids. We caught bull heads, suckers, sunfish and turtles.
The sack swing down in the grove was hung by LeRoy. He climbed up into the very tall tree to put it in place. He built a platform on another tree for us to start the long swing outward. For a boy of ten this was a real adventure created by my big brother.
Often Lee, with his two younger brothers, Cyril and Ed, would go out at night skunk hunting. They would get into the Model T. several gunney sacks piled in the back seat and head for one of the neighbor's field entrance or driveway that had a culvert. They would flash a light into the culvert to see if a skunk or civi cat was in the culvert. Lee used a hose that fit over the tail pipe and run it into the culvert. The gunney sack was placed over the other end. When an animal was smoked out, he would end up in the sack. The skunk's pelt would be stretched on a special board to cure.
In the winter time many Sunday afternoons were spent sledding on Johnny Rupp's hill. The hill was located a mile north of our farm. The land in Rock township is generally flat except for Johnny Rupp's hill. We used sleds, scoop shovels and toboggans to slide down the hill. LeRoy hooked the team of horses to a sleigh and gave the family a ride to the hill. Friends and relatives from miles around would come for the sledding.
In the early thirties, our neighbors, the Alber brothers, invented the Windcharger. They got a patent on it and manufactured many of them. LeRoy spent plenty of time at the Albers when he wasn't needed at the farm. It kept him out of trouble. In the late thirties the Alber brothers moved their plant to Sioux City, Iowa. Eventually they were bought out by Zenith Corporation. LeRoy lost two good friends, the Alber brothers. Many close neighbors lost their part time jobs.
After the Windcharger business moved away, LeRoy went to work for the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) in Cherokee, Iowa. Among the duties performed by LeRoy were planting trees and mowing weeds and grass. The equipment he used for mowing was a Murray Mower. These mowers arc still manufactured and sold today. The Murray Motor was invented by a gentleman named Murray who was a welder and mechanic for a neighbor, Joe Schissel. Roy Murray also drove the local school bus for a nearby community high school. After working for the CCC's LeRoy was drafted into the Navy.
During World War II in the Pacific, the Indianapolis distinguished herself in many surface engagements and beachhead invasions. She supported carrier raids against Lae and Salamanua in New Guinea. This was followed by bombardment of Kiska Island in Aleutians. In 1943 she supported the occupation of Amchitka. From November 1943 to February 1944, she participated in the Gilbert-Marshall campaigns. She supported the invasion of the Marinas. On November 19, 1943, the Indianapolis, in a force of cruisers bombarded Tarawa and the next day pounded Makin. At this time she was the 5th Fleet flagship. On January 31 she bombarded the islands of Kwajalein Atoll and laid down a creeping barrage in Kwajalein Lagoon on February 4, 1944. In March and April, they attacked the Western Carolines and Palau Islands one by one. Many famous island names appear on the long list of her war record, among them: Saipan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She was awarded a total of ten Battle Stars.
On March 31, 1945, the USS Indianapolis was hit by a Japanese kamikaze plane which killed nine men and wounded 26. She went back to Mare Island, Vallejo, California for extensive repairs. Upon completion of repairs, she was ordered to haul the "heart" of the atomic bomb, uranium 234 to Tinian Island, located along the Mariana Trench, about 100 nautical miles north of Guam. On August 6, 1945, a solitary B-29, the Enola Gay, with one atomic bomb aboard headed for Hiroshima, Japan.
He was drafted into the US Navy when he was 18 years old. Fl/C LeRoy Reinert died on July 30, 1945, when the USS Indianapolis CA-35 was sunk early in the morning, 12:15. After two heavy explosions occurred against her starboard side forward, she capsized and sank in 12 minutes. She had been hit by two torpedoes from a Japanese submarine 1-58 with Commander Machitsura Hshimota in command. Of the 1197 officers and men aboard, survivors estimate about 900 men, badly burned and wounded, made it alive into the sea. Five days later, only 317 men were still alive to be rescued. LeRoy's body is still at sea, as is the USS Indianapolis, still containing many of its crew.
Several books have been written about this "final Tragedy of World War II."
LeRoy's mother received his decorations, a Gold Medal and Purple Heart, in the late forties. The United States flag and grave marker were presented to his mother at a military service years later. LeRoy had three brothers and three brother-in-laws who served in the various branches of the military in World War II. LeRoy was the only one of our immediate family to be killed in action. LeRoy had several first cousins killed in action.
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ABBOTT, George Stanley 
FRONTINO, Vincent Fred 
AMICK, Homer Irwin