1941–1962
Soldier, correspondent, and press aide to General Eisenhower — shaping how the world understood its own greatest drama.
Oldfield entered U.S. military service in the early 1940s — first with the Army, then as a public information officer with the Air Force. He became one of the first journalists to complete parachute training, personally recruiting and vetting war correspondents to jump into combat zones.
His most pivotal role placed him at the side of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as press aide — supervising war correspondent operations and coordinating media coverage of major Allied campaigns, including the epochal D-Day invasion of Normandy in June 1944.
He later served in the Korean War and with the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), retiring in 1962 at the full rank of colonel.
On June 6, 1944, as Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, Oldfield was there — not with a rifle but with a press corps. He coordinated the journalists who told the world the story of history's largest amphibious invasion. The media coverage he helped orchestrate shaped public understanding of the war's turning point.
In 1955, Oldfield helped launch what would become one of America's most beloved holiday traditions: publicizing the military's tracking of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. A clever communications exercise became a cultural institution still running today — a testament to his gift for turning the official into the memorable.
When a Sears advertisement accidentally printed a NORAD duty officer's phone number as a "Santa hotline," Oldfield saw not a problem but a possibility. He helped transform a practical communications exercise into a holiday tradition — NORAD Tracks Santa — that has delighted children for seven decades and counting.