Republican National Committee which elected him its first President. He later served as the head of the Young Republican National Federation. Travelers Mutual struggled through the depression years becoming one of the first companies to offer insurance and premium financing to the fledgling long haul trucking industry. Operations were expanded into Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. In 1938, George Olmsted purchased the United Automobile Insurance Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Hawkeye Casualty Company of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This was followed in 1940 by the purchase of the Illinois Casualty Company of Springfield, Illinois. Operating headquarters for all of the companies were consolidated in Des Moines and a management team was established that would carry the companies through the hard years to come. World War II Recalled to active service in the Army in January 1942, then Major Olmsted led the Requirements and Assignments Branch, International Division, Army Service Forces which handled Lend Lease requests from allied governments for Army material and equipment. In this position he had to balance the complex, simultaneous equations of American industrial production schedules and capacity, American military requirements, urgent requests for help from allied governments and the demands of the current strategic situation. Frantic appeals were coming to the United States from Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, and Free French Forces in North Africa. All of these appeals had to be dealt with as rapidly or as diplomatically as possible. In addition, Olmsted established programs to ensure delivery of assistance to the correct place at the promised time as well as programs to train the recipients in the use and maintenance of the equipment. In 1944, then Colonel Olmsted's wife Virginia died. Shortly thereafter he was sent to China to serve on the staff of General Albert Wedemeyer and to establish a new general staff section known as G-5 for the China-Burma-India Theater. Olmsted was promoted to brigadier general and took charge of the G-5 section which was responsible for civil (Economic and Political) affairs, lend lease operations, training of allied military forces, and clandestine operations. As World War II came to a close in the Pacific, a new situation faced the allies in China. Thousands of allied prisoners of war (including General Jonathan Wainwright, the hero of Bataan) were being held in eleven Japanese POW camps in China. Working with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), US Navy Intelligence, and allied