In Honor

Today I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Frederick Martin Olson, Jr.  Mr. Olson, 86, served in the United States Airforce 15th Edition.  He recapped the time before, during and after the war for me with memories that still made him emotional.

 

Born in September 15, 1923 at 3 o'clock in the morning.  Fred was the son of Fred Sr and Lil Olson of Benwood, West Virginia.  Fred was the 4th of six children.  He recalled a pleasant childhood, when life simple.  "We made our own fun back then.  We went swimming in the river in the summer time and rode our sleds down the hills in the winter.  There was a great group of guys in the neighborhood that I ran around with.  We stayed friends always, no matter what."   He said they gave each other's nick names.  His was "Fritz".

 

In highschool, Fred worked on the weekends delivering milk door to door for a local dairy.  When it was announced on the radio that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor, Fred said they were having Sunday dinner and he was in High School.  He jumped up and told his mother he was joining the airforce, but she made him finish high school first.  He enlisted in September of 1942.

 

He trained as a tail gunner on the B-24 aircraft in Texas, Arizona and Virginia before heading to Italy where he began his service in the theater of war.  He was shot down on his first mission over Italy.  "We were bombing the rail yards.  Being a tailgunner, I never knew where we were going, but I always knew where I was because I faced backwards.  We were shot down and we lost our ball gunner, we couldn't get him out of the turret, we had to leave him behind.  That was really tough.  Me and the waist gunner were the last two out of the airplane.  If it wasn't for him, I probably wouldn't be here today.  He saved my life.  I was confused, and only 19 years old.  I had never jumped out of an airplane before or used a parachute.  It was pretty scary.  But we jumped and then we were captured.  We were taken to an officer's camp in Italy.  Even though we weren't officers, we were airforce, so we were treated ok.  The food wasn't so great, but it wasn't all that bad.  We had to gather coal during the day and they locked us down at 6 o'clock every night.  We could write 2 letters a month.  I usually wrote to my mom and my girlfriend.  The letters were censored.  We weren't allowed to say anything about the camp and they weren't allowed to tell us anything about what they were doing in the states.  The letters came with lines blacked out."

 

"When we heard the war was over, it was crazy.  People were running around and yelling.  Our commander finally put out an order that said no one could leave the camp until the B-17s came to fly us back to France.  Coming home to the states was something else.  Everyone met us at the train station.  The hardest part for me was it took a while to get used to mom's cooking again.  The food was very bland in the war camp so I had to adjust to eating good cooking again."

 

Fred said if he hadn't been captured, he may have made the military his career.  He enjoyed serving his country.

 

After the war Fred went back to work at Wheeling Stamping, he married Christine Paskaline on March 2, 1946.  This year they celebrated 64 years together.  They had one son and later two grandsons. 

 

Fred still keeps in touch with other POWs from WWII and is actively involved in area veteran's programs. 

 

Thank you Fred for sharing a little history with all of us and thank you for defending our freedom.  We appreciate it!