One step forward
de Al Zdon
From a Wisconsin dairy farm to the battlefields of World War II, from starting a post-war business to running an international company, Ken Dahlberg's life follows the arc of the "Greatest Generation". He milked cows and shot squirrels as a kid, joined the Army Air Corps at 24, flew cover for the D-Day invasion of Normandy, and shot down 15 German planes to become one of America's few triple aces. He also was shot down three times, escaped twice and ended the war in a POW camp in Moosburg, Germany. He returned from the war to start a career in the electronics industry that would lead to the founding of the Miracle Ear hearing aid company. A devotee of capitalism and the free-enterprise system, he is the epitome of the successful entrepreneur. But, he says, "you have to have a little luck, too." The stories he tells in One Step Forward with the help of writers Al Zdon and Warren Mack capture the drive - and the luck - behind this quintessentially American life.
