Twin vets pulled double duty, serving in Navy, Army

John and Leo Lochert fondly recall their two years in the Navy.

Their time in the Army? What comes to mind for John is “dirt and mud and cold and ugh.”

The 88-year-old twins, whose birthday is Dec. 7, served in World War II in the Navy and then in the Korean War in the Army.

Twin brothers John and Leo Lochert pose for a photo before beginning their service in the U.S. Navy. Photo courtesy John Lochert

In 2013 they took an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C., to visit the “impressive” war memorials and monuments. They reflected on their military experience in a recent interview.

In 1944 in Dickinson, North Dakota, the twins were 17 and subject to the draft. They didn’t want to be in the Army, so they volunteered for the Navy.

“I thought Navy would be a better duty,” Leo sad.

“It was!” John said.

So two days after high school graduation, before the ceremony and the prom, the twins started their military careers.

They went to boot camp and then a 6-month course at the University of Idaho to learn to be radio operators to send and receive encoded messages. It was a fun time with a lot of invitations to sorority dances because “they needed boys” with most of the local young men gone during wartime.

Patches from the Locherts’ time in the military are on display Thursday. The Locherts were deployed on different Navy ships at the same time, which was the first time the brothers from North Dakota were separated. Rebecca Noble / for the Arizona Daily Star

When they got their service assignments, they were shocked to learn they couldn’t stay together. They’d never been apart.

“It was terrible, really. It hurt,” John said.

Leo pleaded with his commanding officer to let the brothers stay together, but after the five Sullivan brothers were killed when the USS Juneau was sunk in the South Pacific in 1942, the Navy enforced its ban on siblings serving together. They were sent to their separate assignments in the South Pacific and served for two years in the Navy.

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“Some old tin-can destroyer he got, and I got a carrier,” John said.

After the war, both ships were decommissioned and the twins went home. To help pay for college, they joined the Army National Guard as master sergeants to get financial help going to college. They were trained for a medical unit.

“This was when the Korean War was going on.

A pin from John Lochert’s time in the U.S. Army that reads “Can do,” his unit’s motto. Rebecca Noble / for the Arizona Daily Star

Our commanding officer said, ‘Don’t worry, folks, we’re not going to get called up,’” Leo said.

Two days later, they were.

“He got the .45; I got the M1 rifle,” Leo said.

John accepted a battlefield commission and was sent overseas, followed by Leo. But this time the brothers were allowed to serve together, and Leo sometimes wore John’s uniform to sneak into officers’ clubs with him.

They worked at forward first aid stations where the wounded were brought, sometimes without legs or arms, sometimes in body bags. “It was terrible,” Leo said. “The worst I’ve seen.”

They served together two years in the Army for two years. John served a third year, and they both finished college.

John had a career in accounting, and Leo had a career in baking and restaurant work.

Leo had four sons and four daughters with Dorothy Jean Cox, and they moved to Tucson. After they divorced, Leo married Buffy De Trouville. John joined Leo in Tucson.

These days, you can hear the twins singing in the church choir at St. Thomas the Apostle Church.