Leonard C. Eastman

Len Eastman was born in 1933 in Bernardston, Massachusetts. After graduating from Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, he entered the Naval Aviation Officer Candidate School on October 23, 1957. Ensign Eastman next completed flight school and Photographic Reconnaissance Officer School before serving as an RF-8A Crusader pilot with VFP-63, followed by service as a flight instructor at NAS Kingsville, Texas. After attending the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Lieutenant Eastman returned to VFP-63 at an RF-8A pilot, and served two combat tours in Southeast Asia while flying from the aircraft carrier USS Oriskany (CVA-34), and then aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hancock (CFA-19) from May 1966 until he was forced to eject over North Vietnam and was taken as a Prisoner of War on June 21, 1966.