Elmer W. Putzier was killed in a Plane accident while training in Nebraska. He was a member of a B-34 bomber that crashed on October 18th, 1942, along with three other members of the crew. The pilot who was flying the plane that Elmer was killed in was from the small town of Pelican Rapids, MN. During World War II, there were eleven airfields built in Nebraska specifically for training airmen for the fighters and bombers. The deaths of 229 men occured during the WWII era at these airfields, from such things as weather, mid-air collisions, mechanical failure, and disorientation, before they even got into the war.