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ADVISORY: Rep. Wenstrup to Speak TODAY at Post Office Dedication for Local WWII Veterans John Leahr and Herb Heilbrun

Cincinnati, September 9, 2022

CINCINNATI - Today, Representative Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), will speak at the Post Office dedication for Herbert Heilbrun and John Leahr in Cincinnati. This follows the passage of Rep. Wenstrup's legislation (H.R. 960) to rename the post office on Burnet Avenue the "John H. Leahr and Herbert M. Heilbrun Post Office." John Leahr and Herb Heilbrun were both Cincinnati natives who served in the Army Air Corps during World War II, and the post office is located in the neighborhood where the two men grew up and went to school together.

WHO: Scheduled to speak at the ceremony:

  1. Representative Brad Wenstrup (R-OH)
  2. Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH)
  3. USPS Cincinnati Postmaster Karen Garber 

WHAT: Post Office Dedication for local heroes Herbert Heilbrun and John Leahr

WHEN: Friday, September 9 at 9:00 a.m. EDT

WHERE: 3493 Burnet Ave, Cincinnati, OH 45229

The event will be livestreamed here.

Background:

Representative Wenstrup and Representative Chabot introduced a bill in 2021 to rename the Post Office located at 3493 Burnet Avenue in Cincinnati the John H. Leahr and Herbert M. Heilbrun Post Office in honor of these two remarkable men.

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 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. 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.

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