Don and his crew were among the first crews to arrive at Alamogordo. Many of the new crews had been disbanded to form other new crews or were taken over by a senior pilot. Apparently, the command staff liked what they saw in Don as his crew remained intact. They were assigned to the 859th Squadron as as Crew 907. After three months of Group Training, the 492nd was ordered to England for combat duty. Don's wife saw him off at Alamogordo as the Group began its trek to the European Theater.

While at North Pickenham, Don was promoted to 1st Lieutenant. He led his crew on twenty-eight combat missions while the Group took extremely high casualties. He got his fair share of the tough assignments. During that time he was awarded an Air Medal and two Oak Leaf Clusters.

When the Group was disbanded in August of '44, Don took his crew to the 467th BG. They flew three more missions with them, thus completing their tour of thirty. At a later date, a review board gave them credit for an earlier uncredited mission. Crew 907 ended up with thirty-one credited combat missions. Don was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, plus was given another cluster to his Air Medal.

Crew 907 knows that they were lucky to had survived the war. But every man who served with Don are quick credit his good skills, judgement and character for getting them safely through it. Don didn't want to be a war hero. He just wanted to get back home to his bride. But in order to do that, though, he first had to do his duty, thus becoming a war hero.

Don returned to the US in August of 1944. He finished his service in the war effort as a test pilot for newer models of B-24s and B-17s while stationed at Victorville Air Force Base, California.