Muster rolls show that Master Sergeant Elder W. Balo started with Naval Training (June 30, 1942) to the Naval Air Station in Lakehurst NJ (July 31, 1942). He was assigned to the Blimp Squadron 1(September 30, 1943) and attended the Cathedral of the Air training facility. He married Carolina Harris on May 1, 1943. They moved to White, SD where they farmed and raised Holstein and Brown Swiss cattle. In 1955, he was selected as the first place winner in the Brookings Conservation District's Conservation Contest. He served on may local committees and was a 4-H leader for many years and a 4-H friend after that. He died March 24, 1993 Blimp Squadron US Navy, WW2 WHEN AMERICA suddenly found itself at war following the attack on Pearl Harbor, military planners in Washington realized they had neither the warships nor aircraft to defend more than 12,000 miles of U.S. coastline against enemy submarines lurking off shore. Short on options, the U.S. Navy turned to some decidedly outdated technology to bolster the nation’s maritime defences – blimps.
Beginning in 1942 and continuing through to the end of the war, armed naval airships carried out non-stop patrols high above American waters in search of Japanese subs and German U-boats. Military blimps also shepherded vulnerable convoys far out into the Atlantic, while entire squadrons of lighter-than-air flying machines swept foreign sea-lanes of both mines and raiders. militaryhistory.com