Walter Lebetski

Walter Lebetski was born on July 22, 1924, in Chicago, Illinois. In 1943, during his senior year of high school, he was drafted into the U.S. Army Air Forces and assigned to the Air Transport Command.

He began his service with training at Camp Grant in Illinois before deploying to the Pacific Theater, where he was primarily stationed in Hollandia, New Guinea. As an aircraft mechanic, Walter worked on C-47 transport planes and later maintained B-29 bombers at John Rodgers Field in Honolulu.

Corporal Lebetski was honorably discharged on March 8, 1946. After returning home, he used the GI Bill to further his education and established a career as an optometrist.