From February 2, 2022 post.
Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) issued the following statement after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee advanced his bill to rename the North Avondale Post Office at 3493 Burnet Avenue in Cincinnati the "John H. Leahr and Herbert M. Heilbrun Post Office." The Post Office is located in the neighborhood in which the two men went to school together.
The bill, which passed the House unanimously in October 2021, has the complete bipartisan, bicameral support of Ohio’s congressional delegation and now stands ready for consideration by the full Senate.
“Herb and Johnny were incredible men who lived incredible lives, and I am honored to have known them and called them my friends. My bipartisan bill to honor them will help teach future generations about their heroic deeds,” said Congressman Wenstrup. “I’m grateful to Senators Portman and Brown for helping the bill clear another important hurdle as it moves closer to the President’s desk, and I urge Senate Leadership to bring it up for full consideration without delay.”
Background:
John Leahr and Herbert “Herb” Heilbrun served as pilots in the Army Air Corps during World War II, where Mr. Leahr served as a Fighter Squadron P-51 Mustang pilot with the Tuskegee Airmen, and Mr. Heilbrun served as a B-17 bomber pilot.
Many decades after the war, Herb Heilbrun visited a Cincinnati meeting of the Tuskegee Airmen in 1997 where he met John Leahr. Mr. Heilbrun and Mr. Leahr learned that they unknowingly flew on some of the same missions in the War, were both from Cincinnati, and even attended the same elementary school in North Avondale, Ohio.
The pair dedicated their later years to promoting interracial understanding and unity, and they were subsequently honored by the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations for their work. Their work led to the book Black and White Airmen: Their True History about them, which chronicles their history, friendship, and efforts to bring others together to overcome racial divides. Mr. Leahr passed away in 2015 and Mr. Heilbrun passed away at the age of 100 in December of 2020.
Original source can be found here.
