Air Force Tech. Sgt. Leo Plummer is following in the footsteps of his father, retired Master Sgt. Charles Plummer, as an aircraft fuel systems maintainer at Yokota Air Base, Japan. They pose outside Charles Plummer's old hangar on Jan. 21, 2026. (Marc Castaneda/Stars and Stripes)

YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — You could say Leo Plummer, an Air Force technical sergeant who works at this airlift hub in western Tokyo, kept a family tradition alive.

He was born on Yokota, where his father, retired Master Sgt. Charles Plummer, was stationed twice, from 1988 to 1993 and again from 1998 to 2005.

Leo does the same job his father did — aircraft fuel systems maintenance — in a hangar adjacent to the one where his father worked on the east side of Yokota’s flight line.

And Leo’s grandfather, James O’Connor, was also stationed at Yokota as a crew chief on F-105 Delta Daggers from 1959 to 1961 with the 40th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, the Red Devils.

“This place hasn’t changed much,” Charles Plummer said during a Jan. 21 visit to the base. He spoke while standing with his son near the old hangar where he’d worked all those years ago. These days, the structure is home to the Yokota Aero Club.

A young Leo Plummer, now an aircraft fuel systems maintainer at Yokota Air Base, poses with his late grandfather, former Air Force crew chief James O’Connor, at the airlift hub in western Tokyo during a 2004 visit. (Charles Plummer)

Leo Plummer works next door maintaining C-130J Super Hercules fuel systems, in a newer hangar that his father helped plan.

His father retired from the Air Force after 20 years. He now works for the National Park Service in his home city, San Francisco, but returned to Japan to visit his son.

The pair posed near the fuel systems hangar in almost matching San Francisco and Yomiuri Giants baseball ball caps.

They have fond memories of meeting members of the Major League Baseball All-Star team who visited Yokota more than two decades ago, including Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr.

The Plummers were present at the grand opening of the Yokota Community Center, built in 2001 to accommodate the base exchange and commissary.

In Charles Plummer’s day, the Air Force phased in the C-130H Hercules. Back then, the planes had external fuel tanks, unlike the C-130J Super Hercules that replaced them in 2017.

The newer aircraft are “slicks,” explained his son, meaning they carry all their fuel in internal tanks.

The fighters that James O’Connor maintained — F-102 supersonic interceptors — were stationed at Yokota from 1960 to 1965, according to the 374th Airlift Wing’s history office and website.

In the old days, fuel systems maintainers had printed manuals. Those are digital these days, but a lot of the tools they use haven’t changed much, Leo Plummer said.

One thing that is different: the Air Force has changed over from JP-4 aircraft fuel to JP-8, which has a higher flashpoint, meaning it’s safer, he said.

During Charles Plummer’s first Yokota tour, the United States still had bases in the Philippines that were a frequent destination for the Hercs. After the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 and the closure of Clark Air Base north of Manila, flights went to other destinations, such as Thailand, he said.

Leo Plummer was born at Yokota’s base hospital in 1993 during his dad’s first tour and attended Yokota West Elementary School when the family returned in 1998.

“I live in a tower on the east side, across the road from where I was born,” he said.