Orville Ralston - Nebraska's Flying Ace

Lt. Orville A. Ralston in France beside a fighter plane painted with the roundel of the Royal Air Force. NSHS RG2929-0-348.

By David L. Bristow, Nebraska State Historical Society

Orville Ralston had a choice to make. Flying over France, the engine of his Sopwith Camel fighter plane was giving him so much trouble that he dropped out of the combat formation. Then an oncoming allied fighter plane signaled him that enemy aircraft had been sighted.

The sensible thing would be to get out of there. Instead, Ralston decided to return to his formation, balky engine or not. Soon he saw “three Camels being driven down by five [German] Fokkers,” with another enemy formation above. What to do?

It was Sept. 26, 1918, a day neither Ralston nor his beleaguered comrades would ever forget.
Born in Weeping Water in 1894, Ralston graduated from Peru State Teachers College before enrolling in the dentistry program at the University of Nebraska. He left the university for an army officers’ training program soon after the U.S. entered World War I.

Royal Air Force S.E. 5 fighters lined up for patrol, from Ralston’s scrapbook. Ralston flew an S.E. 5 with the RAF’s 85th Squadron before flying a Sopwith Camel for the 148th American Squadron. NSHS RG2432-1-337.

Ralston volunteered for the flying corps, but the U.S. was so far behind in military aviation that he learned to fly under British instructors in Canada. (And he soloed after only two-and-half hours of instruction!) As a fighter pilot, Ralston flew British planes and spent the first part of his combat duty with a British squadron. Only two weeks after joining the squadron, Ralston earned his first combat victory, returning to the aerodrome with three large holes in his wings.

“Oh, how much a fellow realizes how little he knows about the game after he has been out here a while,” Ralston wrote in his diary. His combination of boldness and humility got him through his early days as a novice fighter pilot. Within weeks he was an experienced and deadly pilot racking up victories.

And then came Sept. 26. With his buddies in trouble, Ralston attacked the nearest enemy and chased him into a cloud, risking a mid-air collision in low visibility. Emerging back into the sunshine, he shot down his foe at short range. Ralston was then attacked by four enemy planes, but escaped by ducking into another cloud. Back at the aerodrome, a mechanic discovered that Ralston had flown the mission with a cracked cylinder that had no compression.

Ralston kept this photo of his friend and fellow Nebraskan Lt. Jarvis Offutt, who became Omaha’s first air casualty on Aug. 13, 1918. Fort Crook’s Offutt Field (now Offutt Air Force Base) was named in his honor. NSHS RG2432-1-144.

Ralston received the Distinguished Service Cross for that encounter.

The war ended with an armistice on Nov. 11. In four months of combat, Ralston shot down at least five enemy aircraft — making him Nebraska’s only “ace” of the war — and had other unconfirmed victories. Back home in 1919, Ralston spent a summer as a Chautauqua speaker to earn money to finish dental school. He told audiences about his war experiences and talked up aviation’s growing commercial potential.

Ralston then settled into married life, opening a dental practice in Ainsworth, where he became a community leader, even serving as mayor. Later, “Doc” Ralston and his wife owned a ranch near Valentine.

But he left it all behind after the U.S. entered World War II. Reenlisting in the Army Air Forces, he trained as an intelligence officer. On Dec. 30, 1942, Ralston was a passenger on a B-17 bound for Ainsworth Army Air Field when the bomber crashed in Montana, killing all aboard. He was 48 years old.

Visit NSHS’s website at history.nebraska.gov.