FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR: (USAAF AIR TRAINING COMMAND)

Lieutenant Oliver “Olie” Crawford, USAAF. Ollie served as an Army Flight Instructor who trained large numbers of Chinese pilots during the Second World War. Ollie, is one of only two Air Force veterans who served as President of the U.S. Air Force Association twice, and as president, he became a key force in the creation and development of the Air Force Monument in Washington D.C.

An original founder of the Commemorative Air Force, who for decades thrilled air show crowds across the U.S. flying the Commemorative Air Force’s Curtiss P-40 fighter. Ollie’s “hands on” association with the legendary Curtiss fighter, began as an Advanced Fighter Instructor during the the Second World War, and would continued on as an air show demonstration pilot for more than six decades, giving him the distinction of being history’s most experience P-40 pilot. He was a co-founder and the driving force behind the establishment of the American Airpower Heritage Foundation and the American Combat Airman Hall Of Fame.

Ollie is a Founding Board Member of the Sino-American Aviation Heritage Foundation and in September 2015, Ollie was one of 17 American Second World War veterans, who were invited to China to participate in official activities that commemorated the 70th Anniversary of the Conclusion of the Second World War, and received commemorative medals from Chinese President Xi.