William Hunter Bronze Sculptor "Triple Ace"

William Hunter Bronze Sculptor of War Heroes

Bronze
Edition 7
28 ½ inches tall with a black marble base

The story of this hero begins when a young Wisconsin boy leaves the farm to work in a St. Paul, Minnesota hotel. He recalls his big promotion from washing pots and pans to dish washer. When he was drafted into the Army during World War II, he had worked up to being a catering manager for a national hotel chain. Contacts in the hotel business helped him get into flight cadet training. He became a flight instructor and was known as a daredevil. He crashed a plane into a power pole cutting electricity to the entire city of Yuma, Arizona. He was subsequently grounded and while relieved of flight status, crashed his motor cycle and landed in the hospital. His commanding officer said he was going to ship him overseas into combat before he killed himself.
Ken Dahlberg started flying combat missions on D-Day. On one day he was in a group of eight P 51's attacking 80 German ME 109 fighters. That day he added three and a probable fourth aerial victory to his total of 15. On a similar day, flying his first mission in a P-47, eight Americans engaged another 80 ME-109's, ken destroyed four with a probable fifth. He holds many medals. On one of them the statement is made, "extraordinary determination to destroy the enemy." Ken was shot down three times. After being shot down, twice he escaped, but the third time was more challenging. He evaded capture by hiding in a German trailer, was captured, knocked his guard unconscious and stole a German Red Cross vehicle and upon crashing it was finally captured. During captivity he escaped again only to captured by the SS and sent to Stalag 17A. During a year of combat, Ken lost one P-51 and two P-47's and downed 15 enemy fighters, thereby the reason to call Ken Dahlberg a "Triple Ace."
Ken is an ace in American industry. He is the founder of Miracle Ear Corporation and at 85 years of age is still flying his own twin engine jet.