Elmer Gustaf "Swede" Rhenstrom (August 18, 1895 – December 26, 1967) was World War I ace and later airline manager. He was also a football player for a brief time.

Biography

Rhenstrom was born in

Kenosha, Wisconsin Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenos ...

."Wisconsin Births and Christenings, 1826-1926", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XRDH-RMZ : 30 January 2020), Elmer Gustav Rhenstrom, 1895. He was the son of Anthony Rhenstrom (1865–1955) and Emma Stahl Rhenstrom (1866–1939), both immigrants from Sweden. He served as a pilot in France during the First World War, where he shot down two (unofficially three) enemy aircraft, for which he was referred to as an

ace An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

. He was awarded the

Silver Star The Silver Star Medal (SSM) is the United States Armed Forces' third-highest military decoration for valor in combat. The Silver Star Medal is awarded primarily to members of the United States Armed Forces for gallantry in action against an e ...

in 1941 for his activity during the war. After the war, Rhenstrom married Dorothy Virginia Miles in 1920. He was briefly a player in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

for the

Racine Legion The Racine Legion was a professional American football team based in Racine, Wisconsin, of the National Football League from 1922 to 1924. Its official name was the Horlick-Racine Legion. The team then operated as the Racine Tornadoes in 1926. ...

in 1922 as an end. He had earlier played at the collegiate level at

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has ...

. In 1928 he joined Fairfield Aviation in

Riverside, Ohio Riverside is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. A suburb of Dayton, The population was 25,201 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area. Geography Riverside is located at (39.778858, -84.123094 ...

, and in 1929 he became a manager at Texas Air Transport Inc. In the 1940s he was an officer at Scott Field near

Belleville, Illinois Belleville is a city and the county seat of St. Clair County, Illinois, coterminous with the now defunct Belleville Township. It is also the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belleville and the National Shrine of Our Lady of the Snows. The p ...

References

1895 births 1967 deaths Beloit Buccaneers football players Players of American football from Wisconsin People from Kenosha, Wisconsin Racine Legion players Sportspeople from the Milwaukee metropolitan area {{Amfoot-bio-stub