Kenneth H. Dahlberg

Kenneth Harry Dahlberg (June 30, 1917 – October 4, 2011) was an American businessman and highly decorated World War II fighter ace.

According to reporter Bob Woodward, a cheque made out to Dahlberg was a key part in connecting the Watergate scandal to President Richard Nixon's re-election campaign, though Dahlberg himself was not accused of any wrongdoing.

Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Dahlberg grew up on a farm near the village of Wilson, Wisconsin and attended classes in a one-room school for 11 years.

During his senior year, he moved back to Saint Paul to live with an aunt in order to graduate from an accredited high school (Harding High School).

After graduation in 1935, he worked in the hotel business, starting as a dishwasher and working his way up to food and beverage manager for a hotel chain.

Dahlberg was drafted into the United States Army in 1941.

He eventually became an aviation cadet in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), where one of his instructors was future Senator Barry Goldwater.

He received numerous awards and decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross for leading a flight of 16 P-47 Thunderbolts (354th) against an attack of 70 German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters on December 19, 1944, during the Battle of the Bulge.

Dahlberg accounted for four enemy planes that day, but was himself shot down.

He was rescued by Martin Dardis and four other American soldiers.

Many years after the war, both Dardis and Dahlberg became key figures in the Watergate scandal.

On February 14, 1945, Dahlberg was downed for the third and final time, near Bitburg, and became a prisoner of war for the final three months of the war.

After training, Dahlberg flew the P-47 Thunderbolt and P-51 Mustang with the USAAF 353rd Fighter Squadron, 354th Fighter Group Ninth Air Force in Europe.

A fighter ace, he was credited with 15 aerial victories.

He was shot down three times.

The first time, he bailed out near Paris and was sheltered by the French Resistance.

Disguised as a woman, he rode a bicycle to Allied lines 40 mi away.

In 1948, he founded Dahlberg Electronics, a subsidiary of which is the Miracle-Ear hearing aids manufacturer.

Continuing his military service after the war, Dahlberg served with the Minnesota Air National Guard until 1951.

Dahlberg went to work for Telex, a company that made hearing aids.

By 1959, Miracle-Ear had evolved into a subsidiary of Dahlberg, Inc., with $100 million in annual revenue.

In 1968, he was the finance chairman for Clark MacGregor's unsuccessful Senate campaign in Minnesota.

Dahlberg was the Midwest finance chairman for the Committee to Re-elect the President during President Richard M. Nixon's 1972 campaign.

MacGregor was later appointed the head of the Committee to Re-elect the President in 1972, after former attorney general John Mitchell had resigned.

It was later learned that the $25,000 came from Dwayne Andreas, chief executive officer of Archer Daniels Midland, as an anonymous donation to the Nixon campaign.

Woodward has said that finding Dahlberg's check was a turning point in their investigation because it led to the discovery of how the Watergate burglars were financed through a money laundering scheme.

A national advertising campaign that Dahlberg, Inc. ran from 1988 until mid-1993 was subject to charges of false advertising by the Federal Trade Commission, which were settled in 1995 when the company agreed to pay a $2.75 million civil penalty.

In the summer of 1993, Dahlberg sold his company to Bausch & Lomb for $139 million.

In 1995, Dahlberg started the venture capital firm Carefree Capital, whose investments include the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant chain.

As of 2010, Dahlberg lived in Carefree, Arizona, and still piloted a Cessna Citation jet.

During the Watergate investigation by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, chronicled in All the President's Men, Bernstein traveled to Miami to see Martin Dardis, the head investigator for Dade County District Attorney Richard Gerstein.

Since most of the Watergate burglars were from Miami, the district attorney's office had launched an investigation.

Dardis showed Bernstein a photostatic copy of a cashier's check for $25,000 that had been deposited into the bank account of a real estate firm owned by Bernard Barker, one of the Watergate burglars.

The check was drawn on a Boca Raton, Florida, bank and was made out to Kenneth H. Dahlberg.

Bernstein telephoned this information to Woodward, who was back at The Washington Post in Washington, D.C.

Woodward telephoned Dahlberg at home.

At first, Dahlberg did not believe he was actually a reporter.

He later called Woodward back and explained that his neighbor, Virginia Piper, had been recently kidnapped, and it was an upsetting experience.

Dahlberg told Woodward he had the check made out to himself while he was in Florida on business and did not want to carry that much cash around.

Dahlberg could not explain how the check got into Barker's bank account, but said it was given to either the Committee for the Re-Election of the President or Maurice Stans.