Leon was born 28 Apr 1925 in Springfield, Greene County, Missouri. His father was Charles Edward Briggs, born 4 May 1898 in Oklahoma, died 4 Dec 1976, burial Tahlequah Cemetery, Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma. Leon’s mother was Anna Lou Haney Briggs Hullinger, born 5 Sep 1899 in Wakenda, Carroll County, Missouri, died 28 Sep 1992, burial Tahlequah Cemetery, Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma.

Anna Lou Haney Briggs married Frank Gifford Hullinger in 1936. Frank was born 24 Feb 1908 in Oklahoma, died 24 Jan 1972, buried in Tahlequah Cemetery, Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma.

At the time of his WWII registration Leon was attending school at Sweeney Aircraft and had worked as a farm laborer.

Leon enlisted on 29 Jul 1943 in Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was the “tail gunner” on B-17G “Candy’s Dandy”, #42-97071 that was part of the 418th Bomb Squadron, 100th Bombardment Group.

Leon was "Killed In Action" when his B-17 was rammed by a German Messerschmitt 109 fighter and crashed near Steinhuder Lake, near Hannover, Germany during the war.

He was awarded the Air Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster and the Purple Heart. An ME 109 attacked their airplane and shot the left wing completely away from the fuselage. The enemy fighter collided with the severed wing and both exploded. The remainder of B-17 spun down flaming and exploded. The entire crew of nine was killed.

Sources: Findagrave.com and Ancestry.com

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project (see www.storiesbehindthestars.org). This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WW2 fallen here on Fold3. Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Sgt Leon E. Briggs