Service, G.I. Bill Shaped Award- Winning Journalist’s Life
Cal Olson • Sioux City
Cadet, U.S. Navy Air Corps
Rest in Peace: July 16, 2009
Don Doll, S.J. photo • Story by Tim Gallagher
World War II service gave Cal Olson keys to his first house. It put him through college, providing the foundation for his career in journalism.
"Since the Homestead Act, I think the G.I. Bill was the greatest bill Congress ever passed," says Cal, retired editor of The Sioux City Journal. Cal spent 27 months in the Navy. He trained in flight, air combat and communication, but he never left the United States. It took an assignment as a photojournalist two decades later for him to see fighting up close.
"I spent a month in Vietnam doing stories and photos on hometown soldiers from the Fargo (North Dakota) area in the spring of 1966. We had 350 area soldiers there and I made it to 120 of them. We were shot at over the China Sea once and almost got shot at D’Nang."
When Cal returned to Fargo, his 75 stories and 200 photos resonated with readers. He spent many evenings giving talks to community groups about the work of their "boys" in Vietnam. The project helped secure his promotion to editor of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead. Eventually, he came to Sioux City where he spent the last 12 years of his career as editor of The Journal. The crash of United Flight 232 in Sioux City in 1989 was Olson’s final big story before he retired. It mirrored an effort he helped guide when The Forum covered a deadly tornado in June 1957. Olson’s front-page photo from that disaster helped the 21-member news staff earn a Pulitzer Prize, the highest recognition in journalism.
Reflecting on his professional accomplishments, Cal praises the military for getting him started and keeping him grounded. "My mother always drilled into me that I’d go to college. But the question was where we’d find the money."
This son of a barber and country schoolteacher found his answer in Uncle Sam. As a college freshman in 1943, Cal enlisted in the U.S. Navy Air Corps. Why? "Because I was 1,800 miles from the ocean and I’d get a chance to fly! I’d never flown in an airplane and I’d never gone more than 50 miles per hour in our family’s Model A." In August 1943 he reported to Minneapolis to start a tour of duty that took him from Minnesota to Washington to California to Tennessee to Oklahoma. He took flight training, worked in radio communications and then completed machine gun work that would allow him to serve as a dive-bomber.
"Just as I qualified as a combat air crewman, the military said we need pilots again."
He then took primary flight training and was about to depart for Florida for his final pre-combat work when the Japanese surrendered.
"I think in January 1945 they were plotting the invasion of Japan. They expected losses of one million men."
Thirteen of his class of 50 cadets finished their training and waited for their discharge. When Cal was sent home in 1945, he put his G.I. Bill benefits to work and was happy to do so.
"The Navy Air Corps was arguably one of the most dangerous branches of the service, but the only gunfire I saw was in practice," he says.
Cal earned a degree in journalism in 1948 from University of Minnesota. Following a stint at a daily newspaper in Moorhead, Minnesota, he landed a job at The Forum as a photographer in 1950. Seven years later, he snapped a photo of a child being carried from a home destroyed by a tornado that struck Fargo. The image helped the newspaper earn a Pulitzer Prize, the highest honor in journalism.
Cal credits his military service when talking about any success he’s enjoyed as a husband, father, grandfather, journalist and community leader. Serving with the Navy Air Corps gave this "average" high school student direction, responsibility and an understanding of serving others for a greater cause.
"I can make a good case for everyone doing military service," he says.