Honor Flight DFW interviews and profiles

Oliver’s father was in the regular army before WWII so as a young man, he lived in Panama, and at one time, lived a few blocks off Waikiki Beach in Hawaii! His father was still in the army, and Oliver was in school in Troy, N.Y. when he heard the announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Oliver stayed in school, he was studying engineering, and since he was already in the enlisted reserve, he was told that the military needed engineers and to stay in school.

Things never work out exactly as planned, and Oliver was called up in August 1944 to the regular army. Oliver’s experience in WWII was straight out of a spy novel. After training on the west coast, he was transferred to North Carolina for additional training. At this point the military asked for 50 volunteers to go to Southeast Asia. He would be assigned to the O.S.S. This was the precursor to the C.I.A. Oliver volunteered thinking they said O.C.S! But the 50 volunteers were taken back to the west coast and eventually Catalina Island for some unusual training that only O.S.S. men would get.

He went overseas in August 1944 and arrived in Calcutta India after a 54.5 day trip across the Pacific and Indian oceans.   They were detached from the regular army and frequently wore civilian clothes. Oliver’s units regularly jumped from C-47’s in northern Burma, behind enemy lines, to disrupt communications, and were detailed to take back the famous Burma Road. At one point, Oliver marched 400 miles through dense steaming jungle to take another road south of the Burma Road that the Japanese were using to take supplies into Thailand.   

Oliver was involved in many tough battles in those jungles in a most famous, and unusual outfit. In the summer of 1945 he was sent to a hospital for a serious eye infection. When he got out, his detachment had been disbanded and the war was about over. He got out of the military in January 1946.

Oliver worked in the oil industry for years, taking advantage of his engineering skills. He worked and lived in southern California for many years retiring in the 1980’s. He now lives in Addison, Texas and is involved in the local Rotary Club.

Oliver has said that the pictures of the WWII Memorial are extremely impressive, and visiting the memorial will bring back memories of those sacrifices that he and his comrades experienced.