Lt. Wm Leeper - Air Force Basketball Team

LEEPER

Posted By: A.M.W. (email)
Date: 8/26/2006 at 16:20:33

January 8, 1949

LIEUT. LEEPER ON BASKETBALL TEAM

Fifth Air Force, Itami, Japan--- First Lieutenant William F. Leeper, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Leeper, Route 3, Mount Pleasant, presently serving with the Fifth Air Force in Japan, will play as a member of the Itami Air Force Base basketball team at the position of center during the 1948 season, it was announced here recently by Colonel Robert W. Witty, Commanding Officer of Itami Air Force Base, Itami, Japan, where Lieutenant Leeper is currently assigned for duty.

Two months ago when the call for volunteers was made, over 40 men from this Air Force station answered the call and after three weeks of intensive training, practice, and several pre-season games, the team has been narrowed down to a travelling squad of only fourteen men. F this number, ten players are veterans of the 1947 team which won the Fifth Air Force basketball league in the play-offs held at Yokato Air Force Base near Tokyo in March 1948.

Lieut. Leeper enlisted in the Air Force at Fort Des Moines, Iowa on August 23, 1941 and following completion of the Aviation Cadet Training program, he was commissioned a second lieutenant and rated pilot. Remaining on duty in the United States until alerted for movement to the Pacific Theater of Operations in June 1947, Lieutenant Leeper arrived in Japan at the second major port, Yokohama, on June 26, 1947, and was assigned to the Fifth Air Force, the Occupational Air Force for Japan, and subsequently reassigned to the 38th Bombardment Wing at Itami Air Force Base, Itami, Japan. Lieut. Leeper was assigned to the Fifth Air Bombardment Squadron as a flight commander and communications officer.