During the depression years, he farmed, hunted, and fished while doing odd jobs for both pocket money and LDS Church service.

Shortly after arriving at Camp San Luis Obispo, the division began training in the Mojave Desert in preparation for its planned deployment to the African theater.

[8] Brostrom and the rest of the soldiers from the 17th Infantry were not trained or properly equipped for Arctic combat on Attu, for in those days the U.S. Army knew practically nothing about waging extensive winter warfare.

The GIs used rifles, bayonets, and hand grenades to drive the enemy out of a series of trenches near the vital Cold Mountain.

The 17th Infantry then invaded Kiska expecting another serious fight, but Brostrom and the others of the regiment found out that the Japanese had evacuated the island prior to the American landing.

[7] The Eastern Mandates are part of the Marshall Islands where Brostrom and the 17th Infantry Division invaded Kwajalein atoll after four months of training in Hawaii.

Their job with the rest of the 2nd Battalion was to envelop Dagami from the American left to pin and destroy Japanese Army resistance in the town.

[9] Brostrom with the lead assault platoon of F Company encountered "withering fire from pillboxes, trenches, and enemy spider holes".

[9] Staff Sergeant Paul Doty and Pfc's Howard J. Evans and Eldridge V. Sorenson, who had caught up with Brostrom by this time, killed many of the fleeing enemy and called for a company medic.

John F. Thorson, from G Company, 2nd Battalion, 17th Infantry, attacked an enemy trench with his BAR and was within twenty feet when he was seriously wounded.

From pillboxes, trenches, and spider holes, so well camouflaged that they could be detected at no more than 20 yards, the enemy poured machinegun and rifle fire, causing severe casualties in the platoon.

Although suffering intense pain and rapidly weakening from loss of blood, he slowly rose to his feet and once more hurled his deadly missiles at the pillbox.

The medal sat there until a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, Sherman L. Fleek, who was then the command historian for the United States Military Academy at West Point and doing research on Pfc.

[11] Brostrom is one of five members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to have received the Medal of Honor during World War II including another former Preston resident, Nathan K. Van Noy.

The ship was built in 1943, for the United States Maritime Commission as SS Marine Eagle, a Type C4-S-B1 tank carrier, by Sun Shipbuilding.

In March 1948, the Marine Eagle was transferred to the United States Army and renamed USAT Private Leonard C. Brostrom.

In August 1950, during the Korean War, the ship was transferred to the Military Sea Transport Service of the U.S. Navy as USNS Pvt.

[13] For the most comprehensive telling of PFC Leonard Brostrom's life see, Sherman L. Fleek Saints of Valor: Mormon Medal of Honor Recipients,(Salt Lake City: Greg Kofford Books) 2013, Chapter Five.