Meet 1st Sergeant Leonard Funk. the paratrooper's paratrooper.

Hotter than a two-dollar pistol. C Company's top non-com has come as close as any individual to convincing Jerry he should have stood in bed or something to that effect.

Deceptive in size and appearance. Funk is just about as successful and colorful an operator as they come in the ETO. He has led dozens of night patrols, harassed and killed the enemy far behind the lines, set up aid stations and even acted as company commander when all available officers became casualties.

Small, five feet four inches in height; compact, 140-pounds; his appearance is anything but that of the swaggering trooper so often detailed in fact and fiction.

Among the men of his company he is more frequently referred to as "Napoleon."

In Normandy he landed nearly 40 miles inland with other members of the stick but successfully waged a 10-day campaign of terror and destruction before breaking through to rejoin the Regiment. Funk's leadership was such that not one member of the small unit was lost.

In Holland he and three other men wiped out three 20 mm. AA guns and their crews just as the gliders came in for a landing. More than 20 Jerries were killed in this action.

In Belgium, while acting as company executive officer, he organized company headquarters personnel into a fighting team, cleared several houses of enemy, foiled an attempted break by 80 prisoners and set up an aid station to take care of the wounded.

These are just a few of the typical Funk activities. He has not had too much time to go front and center for hero's hardware. So far a Distinguished Service Cross, the nation's second highest award, and a Purple Heart with two clusters top off his collection.