Olds Military Career

2. Olds military career started off by him completing his primary flight training in the summer of 1942 at the Spartan School of Aviation in Tulsa, OK. Once Olds commissioned as a second lieutenant, he received an assignment to report to the West Coast for training on P-38 Light-nings. Olds was then posted to the 479th Fighter Group's 434th Fighter Squadron with orders for Britain. Olds' squadron arrived in Britain in May 1944 and quickly entered combat as part of the Allied air offensive prior to the invasion of Normandy. Olds was promoted to captain on July 24 when he scored his first two kill-a pair of Focke Wulf Fw 190s during a bombing raid over Montmirail, France. On August 25, during an escort mission to Wismar, Germany, Olds shot down three Messerschmitt Bf 109s to become the squadron's first ace.
On April 7, Olds made his final kill when he destroyed a Bf 109 during a B-24 Liberator raid over Lüneburg. Towards the end of the war in Europe, Olds returned to the United States and was assigned to West Point to serve as an assistant football coach. Olds had many more assignments ahead including being selected for the US Air Force-Royal Air Force exchange program in 1948, commanded the No. 1 Squadron at RAF Tangmere, becoming the operations officer for the F-86 Sabre-equipped 94th Fighter Squadron at March Field in California, commanded the Air Defense Command's 71st Fighter Squadron based at the Greater Pittsburgh Airport for much of the Korean War, and, lastly, re-ceiving the assignment to the 86th Fighter-Interceptor Wing at Landstuhl Air Base, Germany in