About
Leon Synfelt, the son of Leon and Valaria (Levandovska) Synfelt, was born on February 10, 1923, in Fort Edward, New York. By 1930, he was residing in Schenectady with his family. Prior to enlisting in the military, he worked for General Electric after graduating from Mont Pleasant High School.
On January 5, 1943, Leon enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps. He was a Nose Gunner on the B-24J “Lassie Come Home” with the 707th Bomber Squadron, 446th Bomber Group, and he held the rank of Staff Sergeant. When "Lassie Come Home" crashed in Germany, Leon was on a bombing mission over Misburg, Germany. On November 4, 1944, a German policeman shot him when he was a prisoner of war in the woods near Salzdetfurth, Germany. Leon is remembered at St. Adalbert Cemetery, Rotterdam, New York.
Sources: The Schenectady Gazette, Find A Grave, Ancestry
"Keep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden."
~Cormac McCarthy
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
For the Fallen
Laurence Binyon