In the first photograph below, my father Ernest Anders Erickson is standing (far left) with his Air Corps flight instructor (in the center) and three fellow airmen. At the time of these photographs he was "just a rookie" as he liked to call himself back then. He was a Cadet in the midst of his flight training at Curtis Field / Kelly Field in Texas. In the second photo Cadet Erickson is shown after his first solo flight in a P-19 at Curtis Field.

Ernest Anders had joined the Air Corps in March of 1942 in Minneapolis and left Bismarck, North Dakota in April seeking his pilot wings. These photos were taken in late 1942 and early 1943 and present a young man on the end road of his teenager years and preparing himself to be a bomber pilot.

Ernest was 19 and 20 years old at this time. He had only been as far as Washington state from his home in Bismarck before that day in 1942 when he stepped down onto the train station in San Antonio, Texas to see if he had what it took to pilot a fighter plane or a bomber.

Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson (third photo below) graduated from Blackland Airfield in October of 1943 and received his wings and became a B-17 pilot. He then made a beeline for a visit to his family in Dakota. The happy reunion at home with his mother can be seen in the link below.

Ernest left the states in January of 1944 and would be permanently stationed at Horham Airfield in England with the 95th Bomb Group (Heavy) through October of 1944.

Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson flew thirty five missions over German occupied Europe with the 334th Squadron and came home without a scratch yet had life changing experiences and memories that he dealt with over the rest of his life.

Growing up with him as his son I was fortunate to hear many of his Air Corps tales and the rest were left for me to find in his archives. Ernest's letters and mission notes told another level of his story that is both compelling and awe inspiring. Many of these can be found on various pages of this website.