DON ARMSTRONG IS REPORTED LOST IN ACTION
Word has been received in Davenport that Lieut. Don Armstrong of Brooklyn, Ia., has been listed as missing in action. Details have not been released, but Lieut. Armstrong was a navigator on an army transport. His wife, Mrs. Helen Armstrong, served as assistant food preservationist at the Scott County Farm Bureau officer, and who assisted in conducting in Davenport and Scott county during the past summer, returned to Des Moines several weeks ago where she has been making her home. Lieut. Armstrong and Mrs. Armstrong were married last September.
Source: Quad City Times, August 30, 1943
Don Armstrong
Graduated from Brooklyn High School in 1932. Was a Navigator and Captain in the Army Air Corps. He lost his life April 11, 1943, over Sicily.
Source: Brooklyn High School Yearbook, 1945 (with photo)
Captain Don Armstrong is buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery located in Nettuno, Itlay.
Captain Don Armstrong was born to John Henry Armstrong and Eve Mae Crider on February 25, 1915. He grew up in Brooklyn, Iowa. Don was married to Helen Ruth Kubacky Armstrong.
After graduating from Iowa State in 1940, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps on September 5, 1940 at Fort Des Moines, Iowa. He made second lieutenant on September 13, 1941 and first lieutenant on October 6, 1942. Finally, the Air Corps promoted to Captain on July 12, 1943 with the 45th Troop Carrier Squadron, 326th Troop Carrier Group. He served in the Middle East theater before taking part in the invasion of Sicily. He was the navigator of the lead plane which carried paratroopers into the combat zone.
Don went missing in action at Gela, Sicily on July 11, 1943 and was confirmed dead a year later (July 11, 1944). He was posthumously awarded the Air Medal for meritorious achievement and the Purple Heart.
Captain Don Armstrong is buried at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery located in Nettuno, Italy.
Source: ISU Memorial Union
