An inspector at Aurora Aircraft Co. in California Leon was drafted in June 1942. Assigned to the Air Corps he trained as a cook - his eyesight being too poor for aircrew - and in September 1942 sailed for England aboard the 'Queen Mary'; 16 of them in a cabin designed to accommodate two people. At Molesworth his Mess hall was open 24 hours a day, food available at all times for the 400 men they fed. 'we cooked food in 60 gallon pots heated by coke', most of the supplies having been shipped over from the USA. After VE Day he was taken on a sight-seeing flight over Europe and was later in charge of a motor pool in North Africa before being discharged in October 1945 and returning to farming.