Here is an early image of my father looking very young in full aviator gear with a parachute. He never liked the idea of having to bail out of a ship and till his last flight many years later he never had to. But his few practice jumps were enough he said.

Here you have Cadet Erickson at the beginning stages of his aviation career at Brady (Texas) Aviation School in the Fall of 1942. Standing (far right) with two other airmen in front of the equipment truck on Curtis Field as they await a flight aboard a P-19.

I often wonder what my father was like at 19 years old when he joined the Air Corps in January of 1942 in Minneapolis. No doubt excited about the idea of finally being a pilot that he dreamed of since he was a young boy on the Dakota plains.

Accompanied by his father Frank, he drove from Bismarck to the Twin Cities to sign up for the Air Corps. Ernest Anders always referred to it as the Air Corps, not the Air Force. As he would say, "I joined and flew for the Air Corps during the war and later I worked for the Air Force." Simple as that. He often reflected on his days with the Corps and he enjoyed relating the stories to me.

When my dad was fourteen, the family moved to Bismarck from the farm. Growing up during the Depression, Ernest watched the skies for airplanes as he walked home from school each day. He went along with his father Frank to see the barnstorming flyers who put on exhibitions in the area.

His childhood hero was Charles Lindbergh, and he kept a keen eye on Lindbergh in the news. Along with tales he heard from his Uncle Andrew, brother to his father Frank, who had served in France in the 101st Aero Squadron in the Air Corps during the first World War, Ernest had become quite attentive to the skies. So it was almost prophetic that he too would one day join the Army Air Corps.

After the sign up in Minneapolis, Frank and Ernest Anders headed home and awaited word from the Air Corps. Two months later a letter was received (attached below) dated March 16th, 1942 from the 'Headquarters Minneapolis Aviation Cadet Examining Board.'

As the letter reads:
This is to certify that the bearer, Ernest A. Erickson has made application for appointment as Aviation Cadet (Air Crew), and passed all requirements essential to being appointed Aviation Cadet and will be enlisted as soon as this office is furnished a quota.

On the day he received the letter Ernest Anders was just five months shy of his 20th birthday. He was on his way to being a pilot. By the Fall of 1942 he would be in Brady, Texas with great expectations, high hopes and plenty of learning to accomplish.

Ernest Anders had left Bismarck, North Dakota in April 1942 seeking his pilot wings. He was on the end road of his teenager years and within a year or so preparing himself to becoming a bomber pilot. 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 be pilot.

In the second photograph Cadet Erickson is shown after a solo flight in a P-19 at Kelly Field and below that after graduation from Blackland Airfield in October of 1943. He received his wings and eventually became a B-17 pilot. Soon after he made a beeline for a last visit to his family in Dakota before he would receive his orders for combat duty.

He had no clue at the time where he would be stationed, yet he was excited to go. The happy reunion at home in Bismarck with his mother can be seen in the link below.

Ernest flew to England in a B-17 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's thirty five missions over German occupied Europe with the 334th Squadron was quite an accomplishment. He 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, postcards, diary entries 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.