Charles Frederick Leonard, Jr.
Major General, U.S. Army

Charles Frederick Leonard, Jr. was born on 23 February 1913 in Fort Snelling, MN, the son of a U.S. Army Colonel, and grew up on a series of Army posts. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy with the Class of 1935.

Leonard was just a year out of West Point when he competed in the Berlin Olympics, receiving the first perfect score in the pistol event of the Pentathlon, an achievement not equaled in Olympic competition until 1980. In addition to shooting, Pentathlon competitors fence, swim, run and jump horses. Leonard won the Silver Medal.

He was a teammate of Jesse Owens's and got to know him on the transatlantic voyage. After seeing Adolf Hitler's Germany, he wrote home warning friends and relatives to be on guard about the country. He was invited to tour German military training installations, but after the Games ended, the invitation was abruptly canceled. He didn't have any trouble figuring out why.

Military Career and Assignments

Served with U.S. Olympic Team 1935-36
Served with 16th Infantry Regiment 1936
Served with 14th Infantry Regiment 1936-39
Served with 29th Infantry Regiment 1939-40
Commanding Officer, Company "L", 8th Infantry Regiment 1940-41
Student, The Infantry School 1941
S-1, 8th Infantry Regiment 1941-42
Instructor, U.S. Military Academy 1942-43
Assistant G-3, U.S. Military Academy 1943-44
S-3, U. S. Military Academy 1944-45
Assistant G-3, III Corps 1945
Assistant G-2, X Corps 1945-46
Chief, Misc. Division (G-4 Section), 8th U.S. Army 1946-47
Executive Officer G-4 Section, 8th U.S. Army 1947-48
Student, Armed Forces Staff College 1948-49
Commanding Officer, Combat Command "R", 3rd Armored Division 1949
Commanding Officer, 83rd RCN Battalion, 3rd Armored Division 1949-50
Commanding Officer, 23rd AE Battalion, 3rd Armored Division 1950
Assistant Chief of Staff G-4 (Logistics), 3rd Armored Division 1950-52
Student, Army War College 1952-53
Commanding Officer, 27th Infantry Regiment 1953-54
Deputy Chief of Staff, I Corps 1954
Director of Weapons Department, The Infantry School 1954-57
Chief of Staff, 3rd Infantry Division 1957-58
Commanding Officer, 15th Infantry Regiment 1958-59
Assistant Chief of Staff G-2 (Intelligence), Central Army Group (NATO) 1959-60
Deputy Director of Intelligence, US. Army 1960-63
Commanding General, 1st Cavalry Division 1963-64
Commanding General, Army Intelligence Command 1964-65
Commanding General, X Corps 1965-67

Major General Leonard retired from the Army in 1967.

Medals and Awards

Army Distinguished Service Medal
Legion of Merit

In Retirement

Leonard served as the Director of Security and Facilities at the University of Washington from 1967 to 1971.

He was a volunteer with the Washington State Chapter of the American Cancer Society, recruited for the USMA at West Point and enjoyed outdoor sports and traveling.

In 1989, he returned to the Washington, DC, area and settled at the Fairfax Retirement Community in Fort Belvoir, VA.

Death and Burial

Major General Charles Frederick Leonard Jr. died on 18 February 2006, at The Fairfax Retirement Community in Fort Belvoir, VA. He had complications from a heart attack he suffered three weeks earlier. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, VA.

His wife, Margery Alden Beukema Leonard, died in 1994. A son, Army Captain Charles Frederick Leonard III, died in 1967.