Orville L. Garrison was born in 1921 and was a resident of Butler County, Missouri. According to an enlistment record found on the National Archives and Records Administration website, he had completed three years of high school, was single without dependents, and listed actor as an occupation. He enlisted in the Missouri National Guard as an infantryman but that commitment was changed to a Regular Army enlistment on December 23, 1940. After that, he qualified for and completed flight training.
Lt. Garrison appears in the flight records of the 500 Bomb Squadron, 345 Bomb Group while it was stationed at San Marcelino, Luzon, Philippine Islands. He flew as copilot on five missions, all of which were to targets far across the South China Sea; ranging from the Indochina coast to the Hong Kong area. His fifth flight ended in a crash where the entire crew was lost.