Kenneth Haraldsen was born in 1923, to Knut and Jennie (Olstad) Haraldsen on a small homestead on Jones Creek, ten miles northeast of Buffalo, South Dakota. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1942, trained as an aircraft mechanic and was shipped to a B-17 base in England. In the spring of 1945, there was a request for volunteers who, they thought, were going to officer candidate school. But, it turned out they went to infantry basic training and were shipped as replacements to the 106th Infantry Division that had taken so many casualties at the Battle of the Bulge. He also became a warden at a prisoner of war camp in Germany during World War II.
Kenneth Haraldsen remained in the Army until his discharge in 1946 and joined the Air Corps Reserve. A year later he became part of the U.S. Air Force Reserves when the Air Force was made a separate service. He also was in charge of Air Force medics who tended to soldiers coming back from the Vietnam War in the 1960s and '70s.
He retired as a Technical Sergeant in 1982.
Kenneth Haraldsen moved to Englewood in 1955. In addition to his duties with the Air Force Reserve, he spent 27 years in the postal service. He also was active in the Civil Air Patrol and retired from the CAP with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He is a cowboy poet, historian and an author who has had several books and stories published.