He missed his son's birth because of the Russians

This is a transcription of the family tradition of the reason why my Grandpa Leo missed the birth of his first son, as recorded by my father, Jeff Yungfleisch.

On 11 September 1966, my older brother was born in Seaway Hospital near the Gosse Ile navy base in southern Michigan.

My dad missed it, and the reason has been a famous family story ever since.

On 10 September 1966, a Sikorsky helicopter, an SH-3 Sea King, I believe, carrying some experimental equipment crashed in shallow water in Lake Erie where it had been running tests.

By USN - U.S. Navy Naval Aviation News June 1966 [1], Public Domain,
 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4211076

As it turns out, a Russian spy trawler had sailed up the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence Seaway and happened to be in the area. Fearing that the Russians would try to steal the experimental technology, the commander of the Grosse Ile naval base sent out two sailors on a WWII refitted PT boat to anchor off the wreck to guard it overnight till a salvage ship could arrive to raise the helicopter. My dad was one of those two sailors.

In the middle of the night, they did indeed see lights from divers underwater around the wreck. They immediately radioed for instructions and were told to open fire. To his dying day, my dad remembered vividly the feeling of firing the .50 caliber machine gun into the water around the helicopter. The lights immediately went out and the divers were driven off.

The next day, the salvage ship arrived and my dad returned to base to see his new son. When the helicopter was raised, they found evidence of tinkering on the experimental equipment, and a wrench with Russian markings.

My dad told many stories of his years of service in the Navy, which he clearly loved. But I think his favorite story, and something he was most proud of (or amused by), was the time he fired on Russian spies during the Cold War.

Leo Yungfleisch stationed at Grosse Ile Naval Air Station, Michigan, US
(2nd row, 2nd from the left)

Sailor Boy

Leo Yungfleisch (2nd row from the bottom, 3rd from the left)

"Grandpa? Why did you join the Navy?"

This is a question that I wish that I had asked my Grandpa Leo before he passed away. Looking back, I missed out on asking him so many questions. Don't we all have regrets like that? Next week I will post a page of questions that I wish that I had asked my Grandpa. Thankfully I have family photos that help to fill in some gaps.

After browsing through old family photos I found some fun treasures from his youth that I believe answer that question.

Leo Yungfleisch

This darling picture is of my Grandpa at a very young age, maybe 8 or 9 years old, and as you can see, even at this young age, he dreamt of being a sailor. Years later, that dream came true.

Leo, age 21, in his U.S. Navy uniform, 1957

Leo devoted most of his life and carreer to serving in the U.S. Navy. He, his wife, Shirley, and their five children moved several times around the United States during his career in the Navy, living in Michigan, Florida, Oklahoma, and eventually, Mesa, Arizona, where they made their permanent home. I recently found on Ancestry.com, in the U.S. Select Military Registers of Navy and Reserve Officers, that Leo Yungfleisch became a Lieutenant, junior grade, on 1 June 1984 and two years later, a Lieutenant, on 1 June 1986.

U.S., Navy and Marine Corps Registries, 1814-1992, p.293;
digital image, Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com: accessed 27 September 2018).

I fondly remember going into his study in their home in Mesa, Arizona and seeing his model airplanes and aircraft carriers.  He was a man committed to serving his country.

Childhood Home

Leo Yungfleisch was the oldest of eight children born to Francis Michael Yungfleisch and Lydia Catherine Ransil.

He often told his own children stories of playing hide-and-seek among the tombstones by moonlight in the cemetery behind his childhood home and being paid to cry at funerals.

While preparing my grandparents home in Mesa, Arizona to be sold after the death of Leo, my father, Jeff, Leo's third child, found a thumb drive that had been forgotten in a desk drawer. On that thumb drive, he found a photo of a home supposedly located on a street or avenue named Horning. The name "Horning" sounded familiar to my father and he assumed that it was from Pittsburgh where Leo grew up. After searching on Google he discovered Horning Street and by using the street-viewing feature on Google Maps he searched house to house along that street until he found the house in the photo from the thumb drive.

Still, he didn't know who the house had belonged to until he zoomed out and saw that it bordered a big Jewish cemetery, the same cemetery that Leo, his siblings, and friends would have played in. This was Leo's childhood home.

Leo Yungfleisch, my grandfather

On 16 September 2017, my grandfather, Leo Aloysius Yungfleisch, passed away after fighting prostate cancer that had metastasized to his bones.[1] 

He was a wonderful man who loved his children and grandchildren very much. Weeks before his passing, despite the terrible pain that he was in, he knelt on the ground with his youngest grandchild and played cars with him.

I loved this man very much and I have created this blog to document his life story and the story of his parents and grandparents.

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[1] The Arizona Republic, “Leo Yungfleisch’s Obituary on The Arizona Republic,” Legacy.com, September 19, 2017, accessed September 21, 2018, https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/azcentral/obituary.aspx?n=leo-yungfleisch&pid=186697062&fhid=6229.