Leonard Anderson “Steve” Weissinger
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel | Far East Command leader | 1956 Olympic baseball team manager
Leonard Anderson “Steve” Weissinger was the senior officer most closely connected to the United States Services Baseball Team that represented American military baseball at the 1956 Melbourne Olympic demonstration. Family recollections and Olympic references identify him as the leader and manager of the team while he was serving with the Far East Air Force in Tokyo from 1955 to 1958.
His role in the baseball tour fits a much larger Cold War assignment. Weissinger worked in the command world surrounding Far East Command, Far East Air Forces, and United Nations Command, where senior officers handled military administration, education programs, visiting dignitaries, dependents’ schools, and morale-building missions across the Pacific.
Why Weissinger Matters
The 1956 United States baseball team was not a modern USA Baseball national team. It was a military all-star team assembled from American service personnel stationed across the Pacific. Contemporary and later sources refer to the club as the United States Services team, the Far East Command All-Stars, the U.S. Olympic baseball team, and sometimes simply the American servicemen.
Weissinger is the leadership figure who ties those descriptions together. Australian tour material lists him as “COL. LEONARD A. WEISSINGER (Manager)”, while the family document states that Olympic roster records identify him as “United States Manager: Col. Leonard Weissinger, USAF.” The baseball staff also included SSgt. Walter Koziatek as coach, showing that Weissinger’s role was broader than on-field instruction: he represented the command, managed the delegation, and carried responsibility for the team’s movement, public role, and official presence.
Far East Command Headquarters, Tokyo
The family document adds valuable context for why Weissinger was chosen to lead the baseball mission. During the 1955-1958 Tokyo assignment, the Weissinger family was based in the American military community centered around Washington Heights and the command headquarters world at Pershing Heights. The document describes him as serving with the Far East Air Force while also operating in the broader Far East Command and United Nations Command environment.
Two senior commanders shaped that world. General Laurence S. Kuter commanded Far East Air Forces beginning in 1955, and General Lyman L. Lemnitzer served as Commander-in-Chief, Far East Command and United Nations Command during the same era. The family account places Weissinger within that senior staff orbit and connects his responsibilities to schools, university education, visiting dignitaries, and special assignments.
The exact title of Weissinger’s Tokyo position still needs confirmation from military personnel records. However, the pattern described by the family strongly suggests a senior headquarters officer trusted with special projects, morale and welfare duties, education-related liaison work, and command-level public representation.
Why He Was the Right Officer for the Baseball Tour
The baseball tour required more than a man who understood the game. It required a senior officer who could coordinate across services, represent the United States Armed Forces abroad, manage logistics, and serve as a public-facing ambassador in Australia. Weissinger’s Tokyo duties made him a logical choice.
According to the family document, he had been involved with the U.S. military school board in Tokyo, the University of Maryland’s overseas education program, and high-profile protocol duties, including work connected to Emperor Haile Selassie’s 1956 visit to Japan. Those responsibilities fit the same skill set required for the Olympic baseball mission: organization, diplomacy, command trust, and public presentation.
Weissinger appears to have been selected not simply because he liked baseball, but because he was a senior headquarters officer with the authority, trust, and administrative range to move an American military team across the Pacific and represent the United States at an Olympic venue.
The 1956 Olympic Baseball Mission
Australian organizers invited the United States to send a baseball team for the Olympic demonstration. The American response was a Far East Command military squad drawn from service members across the Pacific. The family document identifies the roster under Weissinger’s command as an 18-player team with Koziatek as coach and includes the same core player group that appears across Olympic and Australian tour materials.
The best-known game was played at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on December 1, 1956. The contest began at 12:30 p.m., was shortened to six innings to protect the track for Olympic athletics, and ended with the United States defeating Australia 11-5. The reported official attendance was 86,425, one of the reasons this demonstration game remains a remarkable baseball footnote.
| Inning | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| USA | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| Australia | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
The Australian Tour
The Olympic demonstration was part of a longer baseball trip rather than a single-game appearance. The family document describes a tour running from late November through December 1956, with games before and after the Olympic contest. Opponents included New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, and Western Australia.
The Americans were nearly unbeaten. The family document notes the team lost only one game, a 2-1 defeat to Australia on December 5. The Perth portion of the tour included a night game at the WACA ground against Western Australia on December 19, which the United States won 4-1.
This larger tour is important because it shows Weissinger’s role was not ceremonial. He had to keep the team moving, visible, and organized across a multi-city international schedule while the United States used baseball as both sport and goodwill outreach.
Primary Documents and Photographs
These images support Weissinger’s role visually and through signed team documentation. Each image opens full-size in a new tab.
Far East Command Letter
A signed Far East Command letter dated January 22, 1957 provides one of the clearest pieces of evidence for Weissinger’s role. The letter states that the Far East Command, at the request of the Department of Defense, organized, equipped, and transported an all-star baseball team to represent the United States in the exhibition game at the XVI Olympiad in Melbourne on December 1, 1956.
The letter also records the broader tour: three games in Japan before departure, two games against an all-star Philippine team, and additional games in Australia before and after the Olympic Games. It reports that the United States team won seventeen of nineteen games.
L. A. Weissinger
Colonel, USAF
Officer-in-Charge
U.S. Olympic Baseball Team
Newspaper Evidence
These Sydney Morning Herald clippings are valuable because they show how Australian newspapers described Weissinger and the American servicemen in real time. Each image opens full-size in a new tab.
Family Memories and Cold War Tokyo
The family document adds a human layer to the Olympic baseball story. Virginia Littlejohn remembered that each team member received a fleece-like USA jacket after the Australia trip. She later wore her father’s jacket proudly, and in a 1959 car-fire incident at Selfridge Air Force Base, she refused to surrender it to be used to beat out the flames. Her mother sacrificed a fur coat instead.
The same family material places the Weissinger household within the American military world of Washington Heights in Tokyo, near Meiji Shrine. It also connects the family to Sophia University, the University of Maryland overseas program, and the social world of the United Nations Command. Those details do not change the baseball record, but they help explain the kind of command environment from which the Olympic baseball mission emerged.
Military Career
Weissinger’s best-documented wartime assignment places him with the 456th Bombardment Group in Italy during World War II. Existing research identifies him as a lieutenant colonel and executive officer, or ground echelon commander, from November 1944 to June 1945. A 456th Bombardment Group serviceman record also lists a Bronze Star entry dated May 20, 1945.
Later records and the 1956 baseball materials identify him as Colonel. That rank is consistent with the family’s description of his Tokyo assignment and with the signed baseball letter naming him Colonel, USAF, Officer-in-Charge.
| Date or Period | Rank / Role | Documented Significance |
|---|---|---|
| November 1944-June 1945 | Lt. Col., 456th Bombardment Group | Executive officer / ground echelon commander in Italy. |
| May 20, 1945 | Lt. Col. | Bronze Star entry recorded in 456th Bombardment Group material. |
| 1955-1958 | Colonel, USAF | Far East Air Force / Far East Command assignment in Tokyo, according to family material. |
| November-December 1956 | Colonel / Manager | Officer in charge and manager of the U.S. service baseball team in Australia. |
| September 12, 2003 | Retired Colonel | Obituary identifies him as Leonard “Steve” Anderson Weissinger, retired U.S. Air Force colonel. |
Timeline
Open Questions
Several details still need primary-source confirmation. The exact title of Weissinger’s Tokyo staff position has not yet been located, nor has the internal order assigning him to lead the baseball team. The family document gives strong context and valuable memories, but some portions are best treated as informed historical reconstruction until matched against military personnel records, Far East Command files, or University of Maryland overseas-program archives.
Even with those gaps, the central conclusion is solid: Leonard Anderson “Steve” Weissinger was the senior identified manager and officer-in-charge of the United States service baseball team that represented American military baseball during the 1956 Melbourne Olympic demonstration and Australian tour.
Research Sources
This page was revised using the existing Weissinger page, the family-provided Word document from Virginia Littlejohn, contemporary Sydney Morning Herald references, the January 22, 1957 Far East Command letter, Olympic records, Australian tour-program references, 456th Bombardment Group material, and obituary references.
- 456th Bombardment Group serviceman page for Leonard Weissinger
- Olympedia baseball results for 1956
- Olympedia overview of baseball at the 1956 Summer Olympics
- Collections WA: 1956 USA Olympic team versus Western Australia program
- Times-Picayune obituary for Leonard “Steve” Anderson Weissinger
- Family-provided document: Japanese Memories: U.S. Baseball Team in the Olympics in Australia in 1956.
- Far East Command letter signed by L. A. Weissinger, January 22, 1957.
- The Sydney Morning Herald, “U.S. Servicemen Here To Show Baseball,” November 23, 1956.
- The Sydney Morning Herald, “Extra Time Gives U.S. Baseball Win,” December 12, 1956.