Tom Rusdal was born in 1911 in Norway and was from Butte, Montana.
He was a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Operational Group Team Norso.
He was part of a team who were inadvertently parachuted by “Operation Carpetbagger” (8th Air Force- 856th Bomber Squadron, 492nd Bomb Group) mission into Sweden on March 25, 1945. The team landed on the frozen Landösjön lake (near the marker) in Lien (Krokum Municiaplty), Swede ; this team was supposed to land in Norway to support Operation Rype. The team was detained by Swedish authorities and after a short time, allowed to go to Norway where they participated in the successful Operation in North Trondelag, Norway.

Members of the Team Included:
T/Sgt Leif Oistad
Cpl Knut Andreasen
T/5 Tom Rusdal
T/5 Sivert Windh
T/5 Eddie Hovland.


Operation Rype was an OSS Mission led by Major William Colby (later a Director of the CIA) the Leader of the OSS Norwegian Operation Group which included teams Norso I & II with the mission of impeding the redeployment of 350,000 enemy forces from Norway to Germany in 1945. The OSS Team was partially recruited from the 99th Infantry Battalion (Sep) (Norway) who formed the core of the OSS Norwegian Operation group; the OSS was a precursor to the present day CIA. Operation Rype (Grouse) was very successful despite the loss of two aircraft which crashed trying to parachute additional operatives into Norway.
A memorial in Lien, Sweden remembers the landing in neutral Sweden.