Steven Gerick joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in August 1941, earned his RCAF wings in 1942 and was sent to England. After flying with the British for nearly a year, he transferred to the USAAF in September 1943 as a technical sergeant and was commissioned December 8 as a flight officer. He became a U.S. Army Air Forces World War II ACE, credited with shooting down 5 enemy aircraft in aerial combat. He left the service at the end of the war to enter college and earned his bachelor of arts degree from Randolph Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, and his master’s in industrial psychology from North Carolina State College.