Where’s the Action?
Dahlberg was born in St. Paul in 1917 and grew up on a western Wisconsin farm. “In today’s world, we would be regarded as very poor,” he says.
As a teenager, Dahlberg moved in with “rich relatives” in St. Paul, an uncle who was a janitor and an aunt who was a cook. After graduating from Harding High in 1935, Dahlberg found work washing pots and pans at the Lowry Hotel.
He remembers as “the biggest promotion of my life” his elevation into the lofty ranks of dishwashers. Superiors soon tapped him for more responsibility. By the time he was drafted for World War II service in 1941, he was catering manager for a national hotel chain.
Dahlberg’s “luck” included making influential acquaintances through his hotel work. Impressive references helped win him a spot as an aviation cadet. He became a flight instructor, training Chinese and American pilots in combat tactics in Arizona. He formed a friendship there with another young pilot named Barry Goldwater.
Extensive flying and gunnery practice served Dahlberg well in the hazardous work that lay ahead in Europe. Goldwater’s friendship would later lead him into another kind of danger.
Even as an instructor, Dahlberg was something of a daredevil. One day he crashed a plane into a power line, cutting electricity to the entire city of Yuma. Grounded and assigned to base police duty, he soon landed in the hospital after a motorcycle accident. At that point, his commanding officer told Dahlberg he was shipping him overseas and into combat “before you kill yourself.”
This turn of events proved deadly for numerous German aviators. Dahlberg started flying combat missions [shortly after] D-Day, protecting advancing Allied troops from German fighters while bombing and strafing Nazi airfields, trains, and other “targets of opportunity.” Dahlberg says his experience as a trainer, and as a bird-hunting farm kid, made him a good shot, able to make the most of the awesome firepower of the Mustang and Thunderbolt fighters he piloted.
By war’s end, he had destroyed fifteen Nazi planes, becoming one of a dozen triple aces in the entire American armed forces. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (twice), the Silver Star, and the Distinguished Service Cross, which stands second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor.
