WW2 Fallen - B-17 Bombardier Orin Christenson + Cold War Victor

Lt. Orin Christenson was the bombardier on a B-17 in the 327th Bombardment Squadron.
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=88553076&ref=acom 

Orin E. Christenson never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.

He was born on August 18, 1917 in Minnesota. His parents were also both born in Minnesota. Three of his four grandparents were born in Norway, while the fourth was born in Illinois and raised on the same farm he was raised on. Orin's father ran the family farm near Madelia, MN. Orin had two sisters and one brother. Orin was engaged to be married and had plans to take over the family farm. 

He enlisted in the army on April 23, 1942, later volunteering for the Army Air Corp. He became a second lieutenant and bombardier in the 327th Bombardment Squadron, 92nd Bombardment Group. The 92nd Bomb Group was equipped with B-17 Flying Fortresses. It was engaged in bombing missions over Germany and elsewhere over continental Europe by May 1943.

On September 13, 1944 Lt. Christenson's B-17 was shot down by enemy aircraft and crashed near Brandiz, Germany. Two of the crew survived and became POWs. The other eight, including Lt. Christenson, were killed.

His grave is at Trinity Lutheran Cemetery in Madelia, Minnesota. I am not sure what happened to his fiance.

Thank you Orin for your sacrifice. Let's Earn It for Orin.

Casper Weinberger

On the same day Orin was born in Minnesota, a California couple had a second son they named Casper. His poor health as a child did not affect his schooling and he excelled enough to be accepted to Harvard where he edited the student newspaper and graduated in 1938. He stuck around and earned a law degree from Harvard in 1941.

Casper joined the army as a regular private after finishing law school. His skills were noticed and he was sent to Officer Candidate School and ended up as a captain. He served in the 41st Infantry Division in the Pacific but by the end of the war he was on General Douglas MacArthur's intelligence staff.

Casper Weinberger as Secretary of Defense and as a captain working intelligence for General MacArthur.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caspar_Weinberger
http://corregidor.org/gallery/gallery2/g2_07.htm

After the war he focused on law and politics. He had increasing important roles serving California governor Ronald Reagan and then President Richard Nixon. When Reagan became president, he called on Weinberger to serve as his Secretary of Defense. Weinberger oversaw the massive rebuilding of America's military strength which led to the demise of the Soviet Union.

Weinberger died in 2006.

The 400,000 fallen who died between 1941 to 1945 were denied the opportunity to further serve our country as Weinberger. Our country is better for their wartime sacrifice but also poorer for what they were not able to do since then.

On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!

To mark having over 100,000 visits to my project to honor the fallen of WW2 on their 100th birthdate, I created this video to share. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY

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