Items from the service of Lieutenant William Banks, who served with the 9th Air Force in the European Theater of Operations. William Russell Banks Jr. was born on 5 March 1924 in Bristow, Oklahoma. On 29 June 1942 he registered for the draft and in 1943 he was sent to Childress Army Airfield for aviation training. Banks graduated from Army Airforces Bombardier School in February 1944 and was shipped off to England in September. He was originally assigned to the 640th Bombardment Squadron, 409th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force but was reassigned several times throughout his European tour. From September 1944 to June 1945, Banks was stationed in England, France, Holland, and Belgium. In July 1945, he was sent back to the United States and remained in the Army Air Force until 1946. He resided in Colorado until his death on 6 October 2012. Items from the collection include a flight jacket, flight boots, flight helmet, dress jacket, maps, a survival kit, charts, photographs, negatives, unit histories, and a flight log.