Captain Norman Olson was born on March 19, 1915, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and grew up in Fargo, North Dakota. After graduating from Fargo High School, he attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for two years, and then worked as a commercial photographer in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, before World War II. He enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces on April 29, 1941, and was commissioned a 2d Lt and awarded his pilot wings on May 20, 1942, at Foster Field, Texas. He was first assigned to the 313th Fighter Squadron of the 50th Fighter Group, and he then transferred to the 357th Fighter Squadron of the 355th Fighter Group, flying the P-47 Thunderbolt, in March 1943. Lt Olson deployed with his unit to England in July 1943, and he was credited with the destruction of 6 enemy aircraft in aerial combat between November 1943 and February 1944. Shortly after transitioning to the P-51 Mustang, Capt Olson was Killed in Action over Germany while strafing an enemy airfield on April 8, 1944. His remains were returned to the United States 5 years later, and he was buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on June 20, 1949.

High Flight

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.