An 101-year-old military veteran has put his long life down to the resilience of the B-24 bomber – and never having children.
Leo Magiera, from Ocala, Florida, turned 101 on September 5.
Raised on a 160-acre dairy farm in Illinois, Magiera grew up in a huge family of five brothers and three sisters.
And while work on the farm kept him out of extra curricular activities at school he escaped aged 18, when he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force.
The decision took him far from rural Illinois and into the skies above war-torn Europe.
Stationed in Italy, Magiera served as a crew member on a B-24 bomber, flying 21 harrowing missions over Germany during World War II.
“One of the things I remember is when you got over the target, there were a lot of shells bursting around,” he said.
“At one time, there was a shell that burst right underneath our plane, and when we got back to the base, there were a lot of little holes in the bottom of the plane,” he recalls.
Despite the dangers, Magiera admits that fear was secondary to the task at hand.
“I guess I was a little afraid during combat, but you didn’t really think about it,” he said.
“You just had to do it. You just did your job and you didn’t think about it.”
After completing his 21 missions, Magiera received two awards — the Air Medal Award and the Air Force Good Conduct Medal — before returning to the U.S. on a delivery ship.
Assisted by the GI Bill, Magiera pursued a degree in business administration at the University of Illinois.
His education opened doors to a career in the metallurgical industry, where he worked for a company that dealt in rare metals.
“I would schedule some of the metals into the factory,” he explains, noting he married once but didn’t have any children.
“We met at work and got to know each other when I worked for this metallurgical corporation.”
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Eventually, Magiera embarked on a new chapter, spending 30 years working for the U.S. Postal Service in a variety of roles.
“Mostly it was as an inside clerk,” he says.
In retirement, Magiera relocated to Florida where he acquired six acres for a hobby farm near Ocala while cultivating a quiet and fulfilling lifestyle.
“I thought it was a pretty good life,” he says. “Growing up on the farm and then later with the Air Force, so I thought it was pretty good.”
Now, Magiera lives in Marion Woods – Sky Active Living and attributes his longevity to a combination of good health, regular exercise – and staying childfree.
“It’s because I don’t have kids,” he said with a laugh.
“I don’t have advice on getting old, really,” he says.
“I’ve always been pretty healthy, and so growing up on a farm and doing chores and the exercise and so forth, all that helped.
“Just eat right, exercise, and take it easy.”