Don was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and enlisted after Pearl Harbour. Based at Chelveston, Shipdham and then at Metfield with 491st BG he served from 1942-45 with the Military Police. “I feel blessed that they allowed me to join,” he says. “I think I am the only PFC in the 8th Air Force that flew on a B-17 and B-24!”



On D-Day Don's duty was to secure the briefing for the bomb raids behind enemy lines. Of Curtis LeMay’s visit he remembers, “My memory of Curtis LeMay is that he had a two finger cigar butt salute!”



In November 1944 Don was watching a movie on the Base the night of Britain’s largest explosion at Medfield bomb dump. The accident cost seventy lives and was “utter destruction, remarkable and scary.”