34 Nebraskaland • November 2024
rville Ralston had a choice to make. Flying over France,
the engine of his Sopwith Camel fi ghter plane was
giving him so much trouble that he dropped out of the
combat formation. Then an oncoming allied fi ghter
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 fi ve
[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 offi cers' training program soon after the U.S.
entered World War I.
Ralston volunteered for the fl ying corps, but the U.S. was
Orville Ralston
By David L. Bristow, Nebraska State Historical Society
O
Ralston pasted into his scrapbook this photo of "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen's "Flying Circus," noting that the photo
was "captured from Hun pilot." NSHS RG2432-1-305
Nebraska's WWI Flying Ace
