Personal Brigadier General Leslie James Westberg was born June 23, 1920, in
Menasha, Wisconsin, attended
Menasha High School in 1938, and later attended the
University of Omaha. . He was married twice, first to Jean K. Talbert (1940-1955) and had one daughter. After their divorce, he married Jeanne C. (Whitinger) Hehn in 1957 and remained married to her until her death in 1991, no children together, but she had three children from a previous marriage. He died on January 4, 1997, he was 76 years old.
World War II He enlisted in September 1942 in the
United States Army Air Forces and entered civilian pilot training and the aviation cadet program. He graduated in November 1943 with a commission as second lieutenant and his pilot wings. He then received training as a bomber pilot at Maxwell Field, Alabama; Charleston, South Carolina; and Langley Field, Virginia. Westberg served from June 1944 to April 1945 with the
Fifteenth Air Force in Italy and flew 35 combat missions in
B-24 Liberator bombers.
Post-War From 1945 to 1954, he served in various bomber organizations as lead crew aircraft commander on
B-25 Mitchell,
B-26 Invader,
B-29 Superfortress, and
B-36 Peacemaker medium and heavy bomber aircraft; operations officer; inspector; and as maintenance and tactical squadron commander at Memphis, Tennessee, and Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington.
Korean War He flew 27 combat missions in B-29s in 1950 during the
Korean War with the United Nations Forces in Korea. He served from October 1954 to August 1957 at
March Air Force Base, California, in staff and command positions, flying
B-47 Stratojets with the 22d and 320th Bombardment Wings. He then became base commander of
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, a position he held until October 1958. General Westberg next served at
Strategic Air Command headquarters at Omaha, Nebraska, as deputy chief of the Command Control Division. In January 1962 he was transferred to Washington, D.C., where he served as Chief, Operations Division, and later as Deputy Chief, Joint Alternate Command Element, in the organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He served at
Hahn Air Base, Germany, from September 1963 to June 1965 and flew
F-100 Super Sabre aircraft with the 50th Tactical Fighter Wing as deputy commander for operations and later vice commander. He then served at
Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, from June 1965 to August 1966 as commander of The United States Logistic Group Detachment 10 and flew F-105 and F-100 aircraft with
Tactical Air Command rotational units. After graduation from the National War College in August 1967, General Westberg served at
Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, as commander of the 363d Tactical Reconnaissance Wing, and was an
RF-4C Phantom pilot.
Vietnam War He was transferred in July 1968 to the Republic of Vietnam, where he commanded the 460th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Tan Son Nhut Airfield. Later he became chief of staff of the
Seventh Air Force. During his Vietnam tour of duty, he flew 600 hours and a total of 240 combat missions in the RF-4C reconnaissance aircraft. He moved to Hawaii in August 1969 to become Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations, Pacific Command. ==Civil Air Patrol==