From February 16, 2022 post.
Congressman Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) issued the following statement after the Senate unanimously passed 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, now heads to the President’s desk.
“Herb and Johnny lived truly inspirational lives. We owe them our gratitude and can honor their legacy by sharing their story with future generations,” said Congressman Wenstrup. “By enshrining their names in our community, we can pass on Herb and Johnny’s example of respect, tolerance, friendship, and unity. I thank everyone whose valuable input and cooperation got this bill to the President’s desk with unanimous approval by Congress, and I look forward to seeing these two great American heroes honored and remembered for generations to come.”
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 became true best friends and 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.
