When Larry Leach graduated from Milroy High School in 1957 and enlisted in the United States Navy, he had no idea what kind of story he would be able to tell his grandkids.

What he did know was he wanted to fly, which is why he joined a Naval Air Reserve Unit out of Minneapolis while he was still in high school.

When he entered the Navy, Leach had never even been on a plane before.

“I remember my first flight was on a Beachcraft plane,” he said. “We flew to Chicago.”

The training Leach received at Memphis, Tenn. made him part of a crew that would fly patrol planes. His specialty working in aviation electronics was in radio communication and anti-submarine warfare.

After receiving his training, Leach was preparing to deploy to Spain where he would perform his duties.

“That’s when (Fidel) Castro took over in Cuba,” said Leach, adding that ended the plan to see Spain.

Instead, Leach ended up in Norfolk, Va. where he received additional training as part of a new project.

“My commander called me in and said he was looking at my records,” Leach said, adding he was told the training he had received is what the military was looking for to work in a new program that would monitor Soviet and Cuban activity.

After receiving that training, Leach joined a crew on a plane known as a P5M, which he said was kind of like the C-130 cargo ships flown today.

The crew spent hours on end flying off the coast of the United States watching for submarines, ships and even did fly over checks of the island of Cuba.

“We would fly pretty low to stay under the radar,” Leach said. “We would get up, fuel the plane and then have breakfast on the plane.”

Most days the crew would be in the air for eight hours, although there were also times when the flights kept them away from their base for 15 hours.

“The longest we were ever out was 18 hours,” said Leach.

When something was spotted, it was the job of the crew to photograph what they had found and then to communicate via radio what they had seen.

Leach said he never knew who would hear those communications, but he was pretty sure some people pretty high up were listening to what they communicated.

In fact, the crew Leach was a part of photographed a Soviet ship that was carrying missiles. That photograph later found its way onto TV where Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. used it in a debate with Soviet leaders.

Leach said the group never really knew all that was going on, but he added things during those Cold War days were certainly “pretty warm,” as crews were not even supposed to tell other crews what they had been doing upon their return from a mission.

Leach continued his service through 1961 when he was discharged and returned home.

He was home for about eight months when he was called back into the service. This time he flew as part of a crew along the Pacific coast. After a brief stint with that crew, Leach was sent to Montana where he worked with a program building the Minuteman Missile.

That missile, he said, was a smaller intercontinental missile that could have reached the Soviet Union. At first, work meant putting together one missile each month, but when the Cuban Missile Crisis was at its peak they were putting together one each day.

Leach spent six years as part of the U.S. Navy and Navy Reserves, adding it was a good experience, but not necessarily one he would want to do again.

After his second discharge, Leach returned to Milroy where he farmed with his father and raised a family.