Leneer Sidney Alsaker

Jeremy Anderson2020-04-25T10:59:22-05:00

Name: Leneer Sidney Alsaker
Location of Birth: Itasca County, Minnesota
Date of Birth: September 30, 1924
Date of Death: January 2, 2007
Parents: Sidney Alsaker & Hilma (Point) Alsaker
High School and Class: 1942 Grand Rapids High School, Grand Rapids, Minnesota
College:
Highest Rank: T SGT (Technical Sergeant)
Branch: Air Force
Other Branch:
Date Sworn In: 1942
Place Sworn In: Fort Snelling, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Date of Discharge: March 21, 1965
Place of Discharge:
Military Awards:

Military Highlights:
WW II Draft Registration Cards – 10/16/1940 – 03/31/1947
State: Minnesota
Name: Leneer S. Alsaker
Race: White
Age: 18
Birth Date: September 30, 1924
Birth Place: Bovey, Minnesota
Residence Place: Rt. 1, Bovey, Minnesota
Registration Date: November 15, 1945 (re-enlisted after discharge on November 10, 1945)
Employer: Not employed
Weight: 150
Height: 5-8
Complexion: Ruddy
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Brown
Next of Kin: Mrs. Hilma Alsaker

World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946
Name: Leneer S. Alsaker
Birth Year: 1924
Race: White, citizen
State of Residence: Minnesota
County or City: Itasca
Enlistment Date: February 9, 1946
Enlistment State: Minnesota
Enlistment City: Fort Snelling
Branch: Air Corps
Branch Code: Air Corps
Grade: Sergeant
Grade Code: Sergeant
Terms of Enlistment: Enlistment for Hawaiian Department
Component: Regular Army (including Officers, Nurses, Warrant Officers, and Enlisted Men)
Education: 4 years of high school
Marital status: Single, without dependents
Height: 89
Weight: 115

Newspaper article: Bovey Press, Bovey, Minnesota - May 4, 1945 - "SGT. ALSAKER TOOK PART IN 300TH MISSION OF 388TH BOMB GROUP - An Eighth Force Bomber Station, England - Sergeant Leneer S. Alsaker, 20, of Bovey, waist gunner on an Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortress, recently took part in the 300th mission of the 388th Bomb. Group, as the aerial war against Germany neared an end.
The group, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Chester C. Cox of Superior, Wisc., flew its first mission to bomb a motor plant at Amsterdam in Holland on July 17, 1943, and rounded out 21 months of battering the German war machine with its 300th combat trip, an attack on fortified areas near Bordeaux, France.
As it helped to pave the way for the Allied invasion and sweep across Germany, the 388th Group ranged across the whole of Europe cooperating with Allied ground forces, striking at targets in virtually every corner of Germany and Nazi-controlled countries, oil refineries, aircraft plants, airplants, airfields, heavy industries, port installations, railroad yards, enemy troop concentrations and flying bomb factories and launching sites.
The group flew in the first shuttle mission to Africa when Messerschmitt plants at Regensburg were bombed, it was assigned to lead all heavy bombers over Normandy on D-Day, it led the first Eighth Air Force shuttle mission to Russia, and its planes led the Eighth Air Force to Berlin in February 1945, when a record tonnage of bombs was dropped on transportation targets in the Nazi capital. One week the 388th bombed military targets in Berlin five times.
The group is a member of the Third Air Division, the division cited by President Roosevelt for the Regensburg shuttle mission. Sgt. Alsaker is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Alsaker of Route 1, Bovey, and was a recent graduate of Grand Rapids High School when he entered the AAF in December 1942. Leneer Alsaker was recently promoted from Corporal to Sergeant."

Wars Involved:
World War II
Korea
Vietnam

MIA / POW:

Civilian Life:
Leneer Alsaker served twenty years in the Air Force and then eleven years in civil service, retiring in 1975 in Sacramento, California. Following his retirement, he returned to rural Bovey and for the past year of his life lived with his son's family in Grand Rapids.

Leneer died in Grand Rapids, Minnesota and is buried in Trout Lake Community Cemetery, Bovey, Minnesota. He is survived by his son, Kevin Michael Alsaker and his granddaughter, Kelly Alsaker.

Tribal Affiliation(s):