Roger Gordon Hamilton was born in 1915 in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota to Hubbard and Ethel Hamilton. Roger volunteered and was inducted into the army at Camp Claiborne, Louisiana in March of 1941, after which he was assigned to the 125th Field Artillery at Fort Dix, New Jersey. It was there where Roger requested and was granted a transfer to the Air Corps. In April of 1942, he was transferred to Coral Gables, Florida and was designated to the navigation Army Air Force Training Detachment housed at the University of Miami.

On October 17, 1942, Roger was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Air Reserve and subsequently assigned to the 28th Ferrying Command at Long Beach, California and then to the 4th Ferrying Group in Memphis, Tennessee. August 14, 1943, he was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and to Captain on May 1, 1945. In August, 1945, Roger was awarded the Air Medal “for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight from 1 November 1943 to May 1, 1945. Captain Hamilton displayed great skill and courage under conditions of adverse weather and enemy opposition. His outstanding airmanship reflects great credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States.” He also received the European Theater Ribbon, and two Bronze Stars.

Roger’s foreign ferrying flights included: From January, 1943 to June, 1944 he made ten foreign ferrying flights in two and multi-engine aircraft to Africa, India, the Middle East, Continental Europe and the United Kingdom. From June, 1944 to January 1945 he navigated for an Air Transport Command shuttle first from England to Casablanca and later from England to Naples. From January 1945 to September 1945, he was navigator of an Air Force Transport Command Headquarters aircraft flying from London to Paris and various points throughout Continental Europe and the United States.
Roger’s service record as a commissioned officer shows a total of one year, four months of continental US service and a total of one year, nine months of foreign services. He also completed 193 days of overseas flying time with a total of over 800,000 flight miles. Roger’s air record includes flight missions in A-20, C-46/47, B-24/25 and C-87 aircraft among others.

Roger married Dorothy Ann King, June 6, 1943 in Obion, Tennessee. Together they raised four sons and lived the majority of their lives in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota and Moorhead, Minnesota, and Fargo North Dakota. He co-published the Becker County Record newspaper in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota from 1946 to 1962, and received a Masters of American Studies from the University of Minnesota in 1963. Roger then joined the administration at Minnesota State University, Moorhead, where he subsequently founded and chaired the University’s Mass Communications Department. He retired as a full professor in 1987. Roger died on August 8, 2001 and is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.