Given Release
San Bernardino, Cal.—First Lt. Richard Alvestad, son of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Alvestad of Blairsburg, Iowa, has been honorably discharged from the army air forces at the separation center at San Bernardino.
A B-24 pilot, Lt. Alvestad spent a year overseas with the Eighth air force in England during which time he participated in 31 missions against the enemy. He wears the distinguished flying cross, the air medal with three oak leaf clusters and the European theater of operations ribbon with four battle stars.
He was last stationed at the Sixth group, air transport command’s Sixth ferrying division at Long Beach, Cal., where he ferried planes.
Source: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA - Nov. 1, 1945
Richard Orville Alvestad was born May 6, 1920 to Lewis and Mearl Amanda Skilbred Alvestad. He died Oct. 9, 2002 and is buried in the Blairsburg Cemetery, Blairsburg, IA.
Lt. Alvestad served with the U.S. Air Force in World War and Korea. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement as a pilot on a B-24 Liberator heavy bomber, having flown 31 bombing missions over Germany and enemy occupied Europe with the 458th bombardment group of the second bombardment division.
Obituary: Daily Freeman Journal, Webster City, IA - Oct. 11, 2002
Richard O. Alvestad, 82, Ames, formerly of Blairsburg, died Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2002 at Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames. Funeral services will be Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the Bethesda Lutheran Church in Jewell with Rev. Marvin Dooley officiating. Burial will be in the Liberty Township Cemetery at Blairsburg.
Richard Alvestad, son of Lewis and Mearl Skilbred Alvestad, was born May 6, 1920 at Blairsburg. He was a lifelong resident of Blairsburg. He moved to Ames in January of 2002. Mr. Alvestad served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II and the Korean War. He married Mary Fresenborg on Feb. 24, 1968. He was a farmer and was a member of Bethesda Lutheran Church in Jewell, the Blairsburg Lions Club, and Webster City American Legion Post.
His wife, Mary, and a brother, LeVerne Alvestad of Williams, survive him. He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Sterling Alvestad.
Source: ancestry.com
