Polk County

Lt. Donald Clifford MacDonald

 

 

Des Moines Flier Missing  

First Lieut. Donald MacDonald navigator in the army air forces has been missing in action since Feb. 12, according to word received recently by his wife, who lives at 1143 Eighteenth st.  In his last letter, which was sent from India, Lieutenant MacDonald wrote that he was going out on a bombing mission.

He had received a shrapnel wound in the left leg sometime in January, his wife stated.  But she believed he had fully recovered from that as he was discharged from the hospital the last of January.  Lieutenant MacDonald holds the purple heart award.

Enlisting shortly before Pearl Harbor, he received his wings and commission in December, 1942, at Hondo, Tex., and was sent overseas last September.

Lieutenant MacDonald, son of Mrs. Anna Burns MacDonald, 1048 Harding Road, came to Des Moines from Boston, Mass., in 1937.  He was employed several years by Allied Mutual Casualty Co.  He has two daughters, Shirley and Sue, who live at home.

Source: The Des Moines  Tribune, Saturday, March 4, 1944 (photo included)

Donald Clifford MacDonald was born Feb. 19, 1920. He died Feb. 12, 1944 and is memorialized at the Walls of the Missing, Manila American Cemetery, Taguig City, Philippines.

Lt. MacDonald served in World War II with the U.S. Army Air Corps 490th Bomber Squadron, 341st Bomber Group, Medium and was MIA/KIA in the Asiatic area and was awarded the Air Medal and Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster.

Source: ancestry.com