Page 73 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2022 - Online Magazine

Army
koreA

for LTV (Ling-Temco-Vought) in Dallas. I was the
Engineering Manager of a design group my last few
years and worked on many projects, including the B-2
Stealth Bomber. I also worked on the cargo bay doors
for the space shuttle program. I retired in 1999.”

After retirement, Leland and Kathy moved to
Lubbock. Leland went on the 2014 Texas South Plains
Honor Flight and, understandably, the Korean War
Memorial was his favorite. “It took me back to my
time there.”
Reflecting on his 91 years, Leland said he would just
like to be remembered “as a decent person.” The
Leland’s company received the Meritorious Unit legacy of this Korean War veteran, medic, engineer,
Award, and his time in Korea was up. “Some loving husband, father, and grandfather is surely that
American POWs were being sent back to the and so much more.
states, so the CO sent me to Inchon, and I got
on the last troopship, the USNS General A.W.
Brewster on September 6, 1953, as one of the
medics assigned to care for the freed POWs. We
docked in San Francisco on September 20 and
had a big reception welcoming us back.”

Back in the states, Flyger took a train to Camp
Carson near Colorado Springs, where he was
discharged from active duty on September 28,
1953. “I went from Camp Carson to Denver,” he
said. “Another guy and I met up, and we took
a train to Omaha, Nebraska. We rode up top on
the observation deck and had it all to ourselves.
From there, I flew on my first commercial flight
on a DC-3 plane to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Home was only 30 miles away. I stopped at the
General Motors dealer in Sioux Falls and asked
if my dad was there because he bought a new
Oldsmobile every two years. The salesman there
took me home. I got home just in time to pick
corn and did some fishing and hunting.”
“I studied engineering at the University of
Wichita, where I met Kathy. She was a waitress
at a diner across from the campus, and we
married on August 21, 1955. We have two
children and two grandchildren. I worked as a
draftsman for Beechcraft (airplanes) in Wichita,
Kansas while going to college and then spent
seven years at Boeing. I left Wichita in late 1962
and went to Arlington, Texas to work, then

Lubbock Senior Link 73