Olof M. Ballinger joined the U.S Army Air Forces in 1942 and was selected for pilot training in the cadet program.

He graduated from multi-engine Advanced Flying School in La Junta, Colorado, and commisoned a 2nd Lt. in January 1943.

Lt. Ballinger was assigned to Pyote Army Air Field in West Texas and formed a B-17 crew that trained at Pyote and Pueblo, Colorado. Lt. Ballinger's crew became a part of the 533 Bomb Squadron, 381st Bomb Group. The new bomb group moved to England in May 1943 and were based at Ridgewell Field in Essex, England.

On the crew's 4th mission, 1 Lt. Ballinger's aircraft, B-17F 42-29928 as shot down over La Coulonche, Basse-Normandie, France on 4 July 1943. Lt. Ballinger successful evaded capture and completed a difficult trek over the Pyrenees Mountains in the Fall of 1943 arriving in Barcelona in early November.

After returning from Spain, Lt. Ballinger was assigned target towing duties for the flexible gunnery school in northern Florida. In late 1944, Lt. Ballinger was assigned to the B-24 transition school at Smyrna, Georgia. He was a pilot flight instructor at the base. He was promoted captain in 1945 and moved to California. He was discharged from the U.S. Army Air Forces in the fall of 1945.

He was killed in an auto accident in California in 1955

wcarah@livingonline.com

Olof M Ballinger