After graduating from Sisseton High School, North Dakota, Ober Torvik left home at 17 years of age and went to California to join the Merchant Marine. For five years he traveled the seas to Alaska and many foreign countries. After that stint at sea, he attended the Santa Rosa College in California until he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in Sacramento, California in April 1942. After training in engineering and aerial gunnery, he was sent overseas and assigned to the 91st Bomb Group/322nd Bomb Squadron in England. He was Engineer / Top Turret Gunner on B-17 “Skunkface” #42-29656, shot down by German fighter planes on the 20 February 1944 mission to Leipzig. Crashed NNW of Mons, Belgium. Missing Air Crew Report – MACR 2460. Prisoner of War (POW)

Ober was captured and spent more than a year as a prisoner of war. After his return to the United States and while still in the service, Ober married Maxine Dady in February 1946. After his honorable discharge from the USAAF, Ober worked in Sisseton, South Dakota as a car salesman for 11 years. In 1956 he bought a beverage distributorship in Pierre, South Dakota which he operated until 1972. He then became a South Dakota real estate broker, developing the first solar home in the area, the Camelot subdivision as well as house and business sales. Ober passed away in January 2003.