Son of Oliver and Edlina, he was born in Lakewood, Ohio on August 30th, 1914.
From childhood Oliver was crazy about flying and attended every flying competition and exhibition. He acquired books on the flying profession and learned from them how to build small models of aircraft. From that, he advanced to be a pilot, and at age 20 joined a band of sporting pilots who earned money on stunt flying for audiences. He reached great heights of efficiency in his profession.
At the beginning of WWII, he moved to Canada and volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force. After training, he qualified as a military pilot and in 1940 moved to active duty in England in the “Eagle Squadron” of American volunteers. During the German Air Force ‘Blitz’ on Great Britain, he was one of the best fighter pilots in the defense of the East Coast and Scotland. Once, in taking out a Junkers 88, his plane was hit but he saved himself in an emergency landing. Within a week he succeeded in downing one more Junkers and a Messerschmitt 109 during the Blitz on London. Three days after this victory he was wounded when his plane was again hit and he was hospitalized for nine weeks, was withdrawn from fighting duties and served as an Inspector of aircraft.
In October 1941, he returned to the USA and was accepted as an officer in the USAAF as an instructor of new recruits. In 1944, he was sent to serve in Africa. He returned from there sick, and after recovering in Miami, Florida, was discharged from the military and resumed civilian flying.
In September 1948, Oliver volunteered on his own initiative to serve in the fledgling Israeli Air Force. On December 7th 1948, while instructing Canadian pilot Ralph Moster for water take-offs in a Grumann Widgeon on the Sea of Galilee, their plane was badly damaged on a landing try and sank. Both were drowned. He was the first buried at the Protestant Cemetery in Jaffa, and on April 4th 1951 reburied at the IDF Military Cemetery in Haifa.
On the orders of the Chief of Staff he was posthumously promoted to Flight Commander.
Prepared by Joe Woolf