Karl Thurman Leverknight was born on January 26, 1924, in Dale, Cambria County, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Charles Humprey Leverknight and Gladys Blanche Holder Leverknight. He registered for the draft on January 30, 1942, in Johnstown and enlisted in the U.S. Army on March 12, 1943, at Altoona, Pennsylvania. He was assigned to the 307th Airborne Engineer Battalion, 82nd Airborne Division, a unit activated on March 25, 1942, at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana, and composed of a medical company and engineer Companies B and C. The battalion supported the 82nd Airborne Division in Sicily; afterward, Company C was attached to the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment and Company B to the 505th PIR for the remainder of the war, participating in the invasions of Salerno and Anzio. In December 1943, the parachute infantry regiments rejoined the division at Cookstown, Northern Ireland, before relocating to Quorndon, Leicestershire, England, on 14 February 1944, for further training. Beginning May 31, 1944, the unit staged for the Normandy invasion from an airfield in Leicester.

On June 5, 1944, the division departed England aboard C-47 aircraft bound for Normandy. Adverse weather conditions reduced visibility over the English Channel, and at approximately 0300 hours on June 6, the paratroopers received the order to jump, resulting in widely scattered landings across the Normandy countryside. Hospital records indicate Pvt Leverknight sustained gunshot wounds to the abdomen, possibly while descending or after landing, and he died from those wounds on June 6, 1944.

Pvt Leverknight is now buried in the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial, Colleville-sur-Mer, Département du Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, weremember.abmc.gov, www.fold3.com