Leonard Tadios was born on January 9, 1934, in Lanai, Hawaii. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1952, and served with the 3rd Cavalry Division during the Korean War, where he was wounded on May 20, 1953. Sgt Tadios remained in the Army after the war, and deployed to South Vietnam in 1964, where he served as a light weapons infantry advisor with Headquarters Military Assistance Command Vietnam until he was captured and taken as a Prisoner of War by the viet cong in South Vietnam on December 11, 1964. Sgt Tadios escaped from his captors in June 1965, but was recaptured 3 days later. He escaped again in October 1965 with U.S. Army Special Forces Captain James "Nick" Rowe, but was recaptured the next morning. After spending 463 days in captivity, Sgt Tadios died in captivity on March 18, 1966. He was officially listed as Missing in Action until the end of the war, and was promoted to Staff Sergeant before being declared dead after the war ended. His remains have never been returned to the United States.