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| Leo Tupper served as a lieutenant in the 540th Engineer Combat Regiment. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/141154404 http://www.6thcorpscombatengineers.com/docs/540th/World%20War%20II%20Amphibious%20Landings%20-%20540th%20-%20Army%20Engineer%20Magazine%20-%20Nov-Dec%202006.pdf |
Leo Marion Tupper never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on December 21, 1918 in Nebraska. His parents Bryan and Edith were also both born in Nebraska. His father worked as a farmer. Leo had an older brother and sister and a younger brother. He graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1941. He worked as the Cherry County extension agent.
He married Sophia Mavis King on October 12, 1941 (They had one daughter born a year later). Later that month he was inducted into the army as a private. He was selected to attended officer candidate school and by October 1942 when his unit was sent to North Africa, he held the rank of first lieutenant in Company B, 1st Battalion, 540th Engineer Combat Regiment.
The 540 ECR took part in the invasion of French Morocco and the capture of Casablanca. Its next amphibious landing was in Sicily. Lt. Tupper's unit specialized in unloading supplies on the beachheads and building roads to move vehicles off of the beaches.
The island of Sicily had been securely in Allied hands for a couple of weeks when on September 1, 1943 Lt. Tupper was killed by a German teller mine at Termini, Sicily while making a map of a minefield.
His grave is at Red Cloud Cemetery in Red Cloud, Nebraska. His widow remarried after the war and died in 2005. I don't know what happened to his daughter.
DONALD REGAN
Born on the same day as Leo Tupper was Donald Regan, who would go on to be Treasury Secretary and White House Chief of Staff for President Ronald Reagan. Regan was born in Massachusetts. He earned a BA from Harvard in 1940 and dropped out of Harvard Law School to join the US Marines at the start of World War 2.
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| https://www.economist.com/obituary/2003/06/19/donald-regan |
He went on to a successful career in business before accepting Ronald Reagan's invitation to join his cabinet. He died in 2003 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Last year on this date I profiled Kenneth Bricker, 36th Infantry Division. You can read about Kenneth here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
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