BIO
Lieutenant James Donald Wissler, USNR
James Donald “Don” Wissler was born October 31, 1910 in Cincinnati, Appanoose, Iowa, the 2nd of four children of Louis Lee and Nettie Adella (Highbarger) Wissler. Shortly after Don was born, the family moved to Des Moines, Iowa where his father went into the auto parts business with a partner, forming the Herring-Wissler Company. Don attended the Des Moines public schools and Drake University where he received a law degree in 1934.
Upon graduation from law school, he set up a law practice in Centerville, Iowa, but, because of the depression, the practice did not build quickly enough and he took a job as Assistant Executive Counsel with the Iowa State Legislature in Des Moines. He subsequently worked for the FHA, National Homes, and Home Federal Savings and Loan from which he retired in 1973. Don married Helen V. Ellis in Moulton, Iowa on December 21, 1935 to which union came three daughters, Mollie who died in infancy, Susan Ellen and Judith Lee.
Although Don was in little danger of being drafted and could have spent the war as a civilian, he put country before family and career and enlisted in the US Naval Reserves October 15, 1943. He was sent to Tucson, Arizona where the US Navy had set up an officer’s training school on the campus of the University of Arizona. Here, the Navy sent enlistees through a crash course of training resulting in officer graduates who were dubbed “90 day wonders”.
Following graduation, Don was assigned to be commander of a Navy Armed Guard Crew. These crews consisted of an officer and anywhere from a dozen to two dozen enlisted men. The men were assigned as gun crews on commercial vessels where deck guns and/or anti-aircraft guns had been installed. Don served in both the Atlantic and the Pacific on three different ships, the SS E R Kemp, the SS Coulee Dam and the SS Panama Victory. The first two ships were oil tankers and the third a “victory” ship. The first ship, the SS E R Kemp, was notable for the fact that the Navy had rejected taking it into service because of its decrepit condition but apparently, it was eventually accepted out of desperation. The SS Panama Victory took part in the Guadalcanal Campaign, was in combat action in the Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines and survived an attack on January 12, 1945.
Don was released from active duty on November 8, 1945 and returned to his family and his job at the FHA in Des Moines. He remained active as a Lieutenant in the Naval Reserves until the end of 1953 and was officially discharged in 1959. Don passed away August 13, 1978 at Des Moines.
Bio text & Photos submitted by Kent Transier, a son-in-law
