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Orville "Tubby" Ralston, Nebraska's War Bird

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For membership information, see: http://nebraskahistory.org/admin/members/index.htm Article Title: Orville "Tubby" Ralston, Nebraska's War Bird Full Citation: William G Chrystal, "Orville 'Tubby' Ralston, Nebraska's War Bird," Nebraska History 76 (1995): 164-175 URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1995Ralston.pdf Date: 3/28/2013 Article Summary: Orville "Tubby" Ralston, born in Weeping Water, Nebraska, earned the Distinguished Service Cross in 1921. He was sometimes called "Nebraska's Forgotten Ace." Cataloging Information: Names: Elliott White Springs, Orville Alfred Ralston, Lawrence Callahan , Jarvis Offutt, Edward "Mick" Mannock, Captain DeCosta, Jesse O Creech, Neil Goen, Eddie Rickenbacker, George H Doran, John McGavock Grider, Ralph K Brooks, Captain "Tiny" Dixon, Captain McGregor, Reed Landis, Ford Lauer, Robert Reese, William A Bishop, Harold G Shoemaker Place Names: Peru, Nebraska; Weeping Water, Nebraska; Fort Snelling, Minnesota; Toronto, Canada; Camp Rathbun, Ontario; Taliaferro Fields, Fort Worth, Texas; Romsey, England; Valentine, Nebraska; Ainsworth, Nebraska; Wood Lake, Nebraska; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania Keywords: War Birds; Nocturne Militaire, Above the Bright Blue Sky, Sopwith Camel' Royal Air Force; White Triangles; Nebraska National Guard; US Signal Corps; Seventeenth United States Aero Squadron (USAS); Carmania; DH4, DH9, RE8 [all bombers]; "Hat in the Ring Squadron" [Ninety-fourth Squadron]; Victoria Cross; RAF; D7 Fokker; 148th Squadron; Eighty-fifth squadron; Spad [fighter]; 304th Bomb Group; B-17 Photographs / Images: Orville Ralston; Ralston in a Curtiss JN4 trainer, Camp Rathbun, Deseronto, Canada; Ralston practicing on the Lewis gun, Camp Borden, Canada, 1917; Harold G Shoemaker and Ralston in Dallas, 1917; Jarvis Offutt and Ralston while at Marske on the English Coast; Ralston with Fokker [mascot of the 148th US Aero Squadron], 1918; Captain "Tiny" Dixon, Ralston, and Lt Lawrence Callahan, Eighty-fifth Squadron; 180 Viper SE5 ad Eight-fifth squadron, RAF and Sergeant Ralph Brooks, mechanic from the 148th US Aero Squadron; Drawing "Fly a Hump!" … Flopwith Camel" from Second Army Air Service souvenir album; Pilots of "B" Flight, 148th US Aero Squadron: Lt Percy Cunnius, Lt Sidney Noel, Lt Elliott White Springs, Lt Lawrence Callahan, Lt Orville Ralston, and Lt Harry Jenkinson, Jr; Ralston during World War II; Orville Ralston's flying suit and other memorabilia In his popular 1920s stories about aerial Called by Springs's successor, combat in World War I, Elliott White Lawrence Callahan, "a man who could Springs sometimes mentioned Orville be absolutely depended upon in any Alfred Ralston (1894-1942). Few readers pinch" and possessing exceptional eye­ probably associated the Ainsworth, Ne­ sight, Orville Ralston was the "two-seater braska, dentist with the pilot nicknamed expert" in the 148th "American" Squad­ "Tubby," who, in War Birds, crashed his ron.s According to the squadron history, "dud bus" on purpose in order to get a He could pick out a Hun two-seater, in new airplane. I Nor did th ey realize that spite of its elaborate camouflage, many Ralston saved his flight commander's thousand feet below.. ..There are very life by taking aloft an airplane wheel to few "blind spots" on a Hun two-seater, the pilot firing through the propeller and communicate to Springs that one of his the observer swinging his gun quickly in wheels had been shot away, and he a wide arc, covering every point except would crash if he attempted to make a a spot just below the rear of the tail. The normallanding.2 other spot is directly in front and below. To gain these points of vantage is a most In print, Springs's affection for difficult feat, but Lieutenant Ralston Ralston is especially revealed through seemed to get there. As a result, he has humor. Describing his one-wheel land­ earned for himself an enviable ing in Nocturne Militaire, Springs, reputation.' tongue-in-cheek, claims "poor Ralston" In four months of war flying in both was "in such a hurry to get back with SE5s and Sopwith Camels, Ralston shot the news and get the ambulance ready down five German planes and sent sev­ for me that he crashed badly in landing eral others "down out of control." and wrote off the plane. His reputation Awarded the Distinguished Service suffered severely, and he got a good Cross in 1921 , the United States's second crack on the top of his head."3 In Above highest award for valor, he is Nebraska's the Bright Blue Sky, a fictional character only World War I ace. named "Tubby White" is "blind as a bat Yet Orville Ralston is also called and has done lost what little guts he "Nebraska's Forgotten Ace."7 Unlike his ever had," a jibe aimed at another friend Jarvis Offutt of Omaha, who was "Tubby," Orville Ralston. Two pages killed ferrying airplanes from England to later, however, Springs returns to the France, no air force base is named for truth. The "blind" and "gutless" Tubby Ralston. Nor is much said about him in White leads an attack on a "Hun" two­ World War I aviation histories.8 Orville seater, the hardest German plane to de­ Ralston lived too long to achieve the stroy. Though Springs's readers didn't swift immortality of Offutt. Yet his death know it, in real life this was the kind of Photo courtesy of author at forty-seven in a World War II bomber action in which Ralston was a specialist.4 crash claimed Ralston at an age before most veterans have begun talking about William G. Chrystal is minister ofthe First the wars of their youth. Congregational Church ofReno, Nevada. 164 Orville Ralston "My first machine." Ralston in a Curtiss JN4 trainer, Camp Rathbun, Deseronto, Canada, July 1917. (NSHS-MS0233) At the suggestion of his "folks at Elliott Springs and Lawrence Callahan, Like many of his fraternity brothers, home," Orville Ralston began "a very both of whom are subjects of recent bi­ Ralston enlisted in the army after war informal and hastily written" diary, one ographies.lo Sometimes Ralston's diary was declared, reporting to the officers' that grew in length as the war pro­ clarifies the recollections of his com­ training course at Fort Snelling, Minne­ gressed. Along with other sources the di­ rades who reached old age. [n other in­ sota, on May 13, 1917. Though he had ary tells the story of a young Midwest­ stances, refreshingly, it is at odds with an advantage over some of his peers for erner who was both naive and brash, the historical "record." having served three years in the Ne­ struggling to master an "exciting game." When the United States declared war braska National Guard, the path to a [t also captures, in a timeless way, the on Germany on Apri[ 6, 1917, Orville commission was keenly competitive. bond between a remarkable group of Ra[ston was a second-year dental stu­ "Every fellow was on the jump," he young Americans and their British com­ dent at the University of Nebraska. A wrote. "The worst thing [ could imagine rades, the "War Birds" of 1917-18. 1915 graduate of Peru State Teachers at the time was to be sent home as hav­ Ra[ston was one of several Ameri­ College, he was born in Weeping Water ing failed to make good in becoming an cans who served in Eighty-fifth Squad­ on September 9, 1894. officer." 12 ron of the Royal Air Force under the Ralston was nicknamed "Wob" at When a circular arrived from head­ command of the RAF's leading ace, Maj. Peru State because he "wobbled" from quarters seeking the names of anyone Edward "Mick" Mannock, about whom side to side when he walked. When he interested in aviation, Ralston rushed to much has been written.9 Ralston also entered dental school at the University of put his name on the list. "[ had tried sev­ fought with the "White Triangles," the Nebraska the ukelele-playing Ra[ston eral times, by writing to Washington, to 148th "American" Squadron, alongside joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity there. II see if [ could join the flying corps of our 165 Nebraska History - Winter 1995 army," he explained. "At that time I Ralston met his instructor almost im­ cattle as specks upon the green pastures. don't suppose there were more than mediately. "Captain DeCosta called me It was all so beautiful that I had hardly no­ ticed the sensation of flying, for in fact we ten men in the country who could fly over and said, 'Borrow some goggles seemed to be sailing slowly through the and I believe they all owned their own and crawl in .' The machine was a 'dep' air. machines." [dual] control Curtiss, with about a 90 Ralston was the first in his group to Ralston was bitten by the flying bug. horsepower motor." solo after two hours and thirty minutes Every day after training ceased, he and There was a moment's waiting until the of instruction. After completing his train­ a friend climbed to the top of a large prop had been turned over several times ing at Deseronto, consisting of five Fort Snelling water tower, imagining then from the A.M. [aircraft mechanic], ' hours of solo flying and twenty landings, what it would be like to be flying above 'All clear, contact.' The mechanic flipped the prop and then the roar of the motor Ralston was sent to North Toronto to the "beautiful Mississippi winding about was quite deafening.
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