Our member Kjell Thore Olsen has died, aged 81. In the photo above, Kjell is sitting in the door of LN-WND as the plane flies in over the beaches of Normandy at an altitude of about 1000 feet. It is two days before the 70th anniversary of the Allied invasion on June 6, 1944. Kjell doesn't jump out of the plane, although we're pretty sure he wanted to. An accident put an end to his jumping career in 1998 after about 2000 jumps. Now he is a tour guide and living historical encyclopedia for 14 of his comrades in the Veterans' Parachute Club, who over the next few days will be making their mark on the invasion of France. Since we fly without a door, a parachute is mandatory, so Kjell can get an overview of the historic areas along the Normandy coast from the plane's doorway. Places and historical events he knows like the back of his hand. Kjell's motto was that if things couldn't be done properly, they couldn't be done at all. When planning the Normandy participation for VFSK and Dakota Norway in 2014, he showed this in no uncertain terms and organized in detail how Norwegian aircraft and fellow travelers could make their mark on the event. Not all of this came to fruition, but that was certainly not due to Kjell, who had pulled all the right strings.
Kjell grew up at Kjeller and became interested in aviation and history at a very young age. From 1959 to 1963, he worked at the Nike battery in Våler, the missile defense system around Oslo. In 1965 he took civilian parachute training in France and Norway, and remained a valued and sought-after resource in the parachute community as an active competition jumper, organizer, living reference book and inspirer. Kjell was also involved for three years in the development of the Norwegian Armed Forces Aircraft Collection at Gardermoen, and there was hardly a detail about aviation history that he could not recall from memory. And - always accompanied by an exuberant mood and a resounding laugh. After his time in the Armed Forces, he joined Schneider Electric in 1963, an employer he served loyally for 25 years in Norway, one year in France, five in Finland and one in Sweden. In his fluent French and authoritative manner, he cleared up several bureaucratic tangles in Normandy in 2014. As a pensioner, he had active board positions and involvement in several different organizations, not least among the veterans of the Nike batteries. Kjell took his private pilot's license in Finland, and on his 70th birthday in 2009 he got 40 minutes as a co-pilot in Kenneth Aarkvisla's two-seater de Havilland Vampire. The jubilee himself got to fly a full acro program in the aging jet machine, and stretched both arms excitedly into the air after landing. The image of this moment hung above his bed when he fell asleep at Vestby nursing home on the evening of Sunday, February 14. He was a monument, a giant and a loner.
Our compassionate thoughts go to Kjell's family and his large group of friends in VFSK, and we think it is infinitely sad to have lost a good person.
On behalf of the Board of Dakota Norway, Martin Nilsen