Leo Gerard Berinati was born on Saint Patrick’s Day, March 17, 1920. He is the youngest son of Vincent J. and Katherine V. Berinati of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York. He enrolled at Saint Peter’s College in 1937 and graduated in 1941 with a Bachelor of Science. He subsequently married and enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet on August 29, 1941.

Berinati was assigned to the 87th Fighter Squadron of the 79th Fighter Group. He rose to the rank of captain and became a flight instructor at Blumenthal Field in North Carolina. On September 28, 1944, Captain Berinati was killed in a plane collision when the plane of a flight student collided with his plane near Carolina Beach in New Hanover, North Carolina. Berinati is officially listed as "Killed in Action" and was awarded with the Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 10 Oak Leaf Cluster, Presidential Unit Citation and Purple Heart.  Captain Berinati was survived by his wife Hazel.