Twenty-fourth Commandant
1 January 1968 - 31 December 1971

Leonard F. Chapman, Jr., was born in Key West, Florida, on 3 November 1913. After graduation from the University of Florida in June 1935, he was commissioned a Marine Corps second lieutenant. Much of his subsequent service was as a Marine artillery officer.
He served in USS Astoria at the start of World War II, participating in the naval battles of Coral Sea and Midway. He commanded the 4th Battalion, 11th Marines, at Peleliu and Okinawa and during the Korean War commanded the 12th Marines, an artillery regiment. While serving as the Commanding Officer, Marine Barracks, Washington, D.C., he was promoted in 1958 to brigadier general.

In 1964, he became Chief of Staff at Headquarters, filling the office for three and one-half years. He was the motivating force behind the Corps' front-running position in automated military management, introducing a series of information systems monitoring closely the worldwide activities of the modern Marine Corps.

General Chapman became Assistant Commandant in 1967, Commandant in January 1968, and inherited the Marine involvement in the Vietnam War. By the end of his tenure, however, the III Marine Amphibious Force had left Vietnam and the strength of the Corps had dropped from a peak of 289,000 to 198,000.

Anticipating an austere budget and fewer Marines, Chapman had earlier made his move for a "hard, lean, fully combat-ready Corps,'' reduced in size but not in professionalism.

General Chapman retired in 1971 and became U.S. Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization, a post he has since relinquished. He has established his home in Northern Virginia.