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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:
Ms. Janice E. Carpi

First Lieutenant Leonard W. Carpi had the distinction of being one of the youngest B-29 Superfortress aircraft commanders in World War II. He received his airplane and crew shortly after his twenty-first birthday.

Lt. Carpi flew most of his missions as a pilot on a lead crew with the 20th Air Force, 313th Wing, 9th Bomb Group from Tinian Island in the Marianas Islands group. This crew was a pathfinder crew on the March 9, 1945 low-level fire bomb raid on Tokyo. More than 15 square miles of Tokyo were destroyed on this mission.

Lt. Carpi finished his tour of duty, which was over 35 missions, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with four Oak Leaf Clusters, and the Presidential Unit Citation with Oak Leaf Clusters.

After the War, Leonard Carpi obtained his doctor of optometry degree from Los Angeles College of Optometry and became a successful optometrist in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he still resides. He remains active in the Ninth Bomb Group Association, and is on the Board of Directors of the Twentieth Air Force Association.