Stanley Fielding Olson grew up on an Idaho farm and attended the University of Idaho for one year before enlisting in the Army Air Forces in 1942. His twenty months of military service culminated over Wiener Neustadt, Austria on 1 October, 1943, when the B-24 bomber he was piloting exploded on a bombing run on a ball-bearing plant.

According to the co-pilot, he grabbed Stan’s arm and, pointing to the bomber in the formation ahead and to their left, exclaimed, “That sure would be a tough situation to be in!” Stan looked to see that the bomber ahead of them had flames streaming from the fuselage. Right after Stan agreed that such a situation was disastrous, a crew member came to the flight deck and yelled, “Hey, the bomb bay is on fire.” Stan immediately hit the bail-out signal and crewmen began exiting the airplane. Stan kept the plane flying straight and level. All the crewmen bailed out of the plane from various openings, but the plane exploded before Stan could escape.

Stan had survived the famous low-level Ploesti raid two months before (1 August, 1943). His bomb group actually lost more planes over Wiener Neustadt than over those Romanian oil refineries. His diary was found among his belongings which had been shipped home to his wife, Peggy Pollock, who had given birth to Stan’s son on 25 August, 1943.

Stan's name is on a plaque at the U.S. Military Cemetery near Florence Italy--the memorial is the "Tablets of the Missing". Every member of his crew got out. According to Steve Bugyie, Stan must have been flying the plane straight and level while everyone bailed out. Bugyie was one of two or three crew members to exit the plane just before it exploded.

The transcript of Stan’s diary was created by his son, Terry Olson, with updated information from Missing Air Crew Reports, also from the 44th Bomb Group Histories (from Norm Kiefer and Will Lundy, the latter being the 44th historian) and from interviews with surviving crew members.

Stanley F Olson