Union Senior Veteran Leo Laukka was presented with the Sabre as the Union Senior Veteran by resident and founder Greg Grotton on Wednesday, October 7, 2020.

Mr. Laukka enlisted in the Navy in 1945 during World War II. He was a Machinist Mate 3rd Class on the USS Capricornus (AKA-57), which carried cargo and provided support in the Pacific Ocean. He made four trips across the Pacific Ocean: to China, Japan including Okinawa, the Philippines, and Guam delivering cargo and performing evacuations of US Marines and diplomatic personnel and their families.

Mr. Laukka was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Finnish immigrants. The family relocated to Harlem, New York, where his parents owned a Finnish restaurant, and then to Flushing Meadow, New York.

In 1942 the Laukkas moved to Warren, Maine, where they had purchased a chicken farm. In 1958 Mr. Laukka bought a 100-acre parcel of land in Union on Crawford Pond. He first built his sauna and camp, then later a home here.

He enjoys maintaining his land and observing the deer, turkeys, eagles, loons, foxes, and other “wildlife neighbors” with whom he shares his fields, woods, and lakefront.

Past Recipients include Raymond Dinsmore Paul Doherty.