Pleasant surprises are often the reward for volunteering to staff an Auxiliary information booth. But in January the Division 6 crew at the Hall Outdoor Show at the Long Beach Convention Center got a special surprise visitor: A decorated World War II veteran stopped by.
Division 6 auxiliarists greeted Leon (Lee) Anstead, age 101 and a WWII veteran who served as a corpsman aboard the Casablanca-class escort carrier Anzio (CVE-57).
U.S.S. Anzio and its 860 sailors and aircrew fought in the Pacific from 1943 to 1945, earning the Presidential Unit Citation. Its six battles included Eniwetok, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Anzio also survived Typhoon Cobra, which sank three escorting Third Fleet destroyers and killed 790 men.
Left to right with Corpsman Anstead are Rick Latronico of Flotilla 6-1; Paul Griger, Flotilla 6-10; and Todd Brandt, Flotilla 6-6.
