by Albert Jerry Leeper Seaman Harold James White is discharged from the United States Navy in 1927, but he immediately re-enlists under his true identity: Chief Kooskoose of the Nez Perce Indian tribe. The military life of “Chief K” intertwines with that of naval officer Harold B. Leeper, a lieutenant who spies on the Germans while posing as an employee of the Electric Boat Company. Eventually, both Chief K and “Happy” become integrally and tragically involved in the Battle of Midway. Thus begins a history of the Leeper clan in America, backtracking to the family’s exodus from the Black Forest of Germany to the dense woods of Pennsylvania, then onward via the path of Lewis and Clark to the vast timberlands of the unsettled west. Now, in the aftermath of World War II, twelve-year-old Jerry Leeper is fatherless and bound by train from Washington to his grandfather’s white square house in rural Idaho. In his new home Jerry discovers outhouses, Indians, floods, and a whole new way of life…just like generations of brave Leepers before him. About the Author: Albert Jerry Leeper has three children and is retired. His hobbies include tennis and reading. (2002, paperback, 88 pages) |