My father Lt. Ernest Anders Erickson sat for a portrait in late October of 1943 at 801 Jefferson Avenue in Bismarck, North Dakota. His father Frank Severin Erickson took the photograph of the smiling flyer. My dad was visiting his folks on leave after graduating from Advanced Flight Training at Blackland Field.

He would soon be heading for combat flying to Horham Airfield in England with the 8th Air Corps and the 95th Bomb Group - 334th Squadron as a pilot of a B-17.

In March of 1944 my father would complete his first mission and by the time he received the DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross) in late June 1944 they had completed their 25th, a No-Ball (an attack on V-1 & V-2 rocket installations hidden in the forest along the French coast) mission over France. Every year in late Winter I think of my father as he began combat flying over Europe in early 1944.

By late August of 1944 my father and crew awaited the day they would complete their last and final 35th mission. The cards laid out for that mission on August 26th, 1944 took a very uncertain last minute diversion.