Jean Leca was born on 20 May 1925 at Vitré (Ille-et-Vilaine), into a Corsican family.

His father was Captain Jean-Pierre Leca, a French Army hero who fought at Verdun. In 1944, he was 19 when the African Army French troops landed in Provence. He volunteered to enlist as a private in a Senegalese infantry unit within the 4th D.I.C and went to the front. At the age of twenty, already a sergeant, he was wounded during the Alsace campaign.

When the war ended in Europe, he volunteered to go and serve in Indochina. He stayed there for two periods: from 1945 to 1947 and from 1950 to 1952. He was wounded for the second time. At 27, he was appointed warrant officer class II. During operations in Algeria, he was made commander of the harka of the 3° battalion of the 2nd Colonial Infantry regiment. He was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant in 1959, at the age of 34. 

After pursuing his military career, under less hectic conditions, for about fifteen years, Major Jean Leca took his retirement. In the years that followed, he played an active role in the reserve and joined the FNCV within which he became a distinguished member. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.

He departed from this world on 9 October 2013, at the age of 88. His funeral mass took place on 14 October 2013, in the Perpignan Saint Martin du Bon Secours church. A tribute was paid to him on 20 November 2013 in the Village of Calacuccia, Haute-Corse, where he was laid to rest.

This famous volunteer serviceman, who is an honour to the French Army, was a great patriot. Wounded twice, having received thirteen war records including one in the Army order and four in the Army Corps order, Jean Leca had been dignified as Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour and had been awarded the Military medal. Officer of the National Order of Merit, he had several other awards, notably the World War II Cross, the TOE War Cross, the Military Valour Cross and the Volunteer Servicemen Cross.