Colonel Ehrling L. Bergquist was born on 28 July 1905 at Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he spent his boyhood. He received his medical degree from the University of Minnesota and was commissioned first lieutenant in the Medical Reserve on 17 June 1929. He entered active duty on 1 July 1929, completing his internship at Letterman General Hospital in San Francisco. Colonel Bergquist then served as Post Surgeon at Fort Totten, New York and as Post Medical Inspector at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. In 1933 he qualified as a Flight Surgeon and was assigned to Kelly Field, Texas. In July 1937 he was assigned to France Field, Panama Canal Zone, where he served as Assistant Post Surgeon and as Post and Flight Surgeon, until he returned to the United States in June 1939. He next served as assistant to the Chief of Surgical Service at March Field, California, where he received a letter of commendation for his work in connection with the procurement of flying cadets. In 1941 he moved to the job of Base Surgeon at Davis-Monthan Field, Arizona. From May 1942 to January 1944, he served as Deputy Command Surgeon, Headquarters Flying Training Command at Washington, D.C., Fort Worth, Texas, and Stout Field at Indianapolis. From January 1944 to June 1945 he served in the European Theater of Operations as Surgeon with the IX Troop Carrier Command. Upon returning to the United States, Colonel Bergquist served as Command Surgeon at Headquarters Continental Air Forces, Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., then with Strategic Air Command at Andrews Field, Maryland, until May 1948. Following attendance in a course in Medical Aspects of Atomic Explosion at Walter Reed General Hospital, he reported to Headquarters Strategic Air Command at Offutt AFB, Nebraska in November 1948, where he was assigned as Command Surgeon. On the evening of 12 February 1949, Colonel Bergquist was returning to Offutt AFB from Chicago where he had presented a plan for Blue Cross-Blue Shield military dependent medical care coverage. The aircraft, a B-17, making an instrument landing in severe weather conditions, approached the field on a low glide path, struck the railroad tracks on the east end of the runway and broke in half, fatally injuring Colonel Bergquist. On 28 July 1966, the USAF hospital at Offutt AFB was named in his honor.