Born in Adel, IA on August 8, 1919, Benjamin (Ben) G. Kinnick was the second of three children born to Nile Kinnick, Sr. and Francis Ada Clarke Kinnick. Ben and his siblings – Nile, Jr. and George – spent their early years in Adel where the family owned land and farmed.

As the result of the Great Depression, the Kinnick family sold their land and moved to Omaha in 1934 where Nile, Sr. worked for the Federal Land Bank. The family settled in the Dundee neighborhood at 50th and Hamilton St., and Nile, Jr. and Ben enrolled at Benson High School where they made an immediate impact in their athletic and academic endeavors.

As an athlete, Ben was somewhat in the shadow of his older brother. However, Ben excelled in his own right in multiple sports. In their only year together at Benson, the Kinnick boys frequently teamed up for touchdown passes on the football field. After Nile, Jr. graduated, Ben remained a fixture at quarterback in football and had success on the basketball court and baseball diamond.

Ben’s excellence at Benson wasn’t solely confined to athletics. During his senior year, he was elected Senior Class President and was chosen as the school’s “best all-around boy.”

After graduating from Benson in 1937, Ben enrolled at his father’s alma mater, Iowa State College in Ames. He opted not to participate in sports at Iowa State, but instead focused his efforts on academics and student affairs. He was elected to the Cardinal Key honor society which recognized students for outstanding leadership, scholarship, character, and service to Iowa State. Ben completed his education by graduating with a General Engineering degree in 1942.

Shortly after graduating from Iowa State and with the U.S. at war on two fronts, Ben entered military service with the U.S. Marine Corps. In May 1943, he graduated from the Naval Air Training Center in Corpus Christi, TX and was commissioned a 2ndLt.

Two months later, Ben and his college sweetheart, Eleanor White, were married in New York City. Eleanor had also graduated from Iowa State in 1942 and was serving as an Ensign in the Women’s Navy Reserve at the time of their marriage.

By September 1944, Ben had been promoted to 1stLt and was a B-25 bomber pilot assigned to Marine Bombing Squadron 443, Marine Aircraft Group 61 in the Solomon Islands.

On September 16, 1944, Ben took off from Emirau Airfield on a mission to bomb Japanese strongholds on New Guinea as part of the U.S. Military’s island-hopping strategy. Ben’s plane was shot down by anti-aircraft fire over Kevieng. When it failed to return, this aircraft and its crew were officially listed as Missing in Action.

On January 26, 1946, 1stLt Ben Kinnick and his crew were officially declared dead. They are memorialized on the tablets of the missing at the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines. Ben was 25 years old.