Veteran's Story: He patrolled the Pacific for floating mines during WWII

Tim Clark, Correspondent

Donald "Don"?Wilson

Branch: United States Navy

Service period: September 1943 to January 1946

Less than a month shy of his 95th birthday, Marion’s Don Wilson has lived quite a life.

“The only two things older than me are dirt and air,” he chuckled. “I’ve been very blessed.”

Blessed indeed,?the Navy veteran survived countless combat sorties as a radioman/gunner in a Grumman TBM Avenger torpedo bomber in the South Pacific during World War II. Don flew those missions off the deck of an aircraft carrier.

Born in Washington Court House, Ohio, Wilson said he and his family moved to the Marion area when he was 12 years old.

“Dad had lost his job, but he found work here in Marion. We (his older brother and sister) went to Marion Harding High School. I graduated in 1942 and wanted to get into the Army Air Corps.?I passed the mental exam, no problem, but I failed the physical because I had an overbite. They said I couldn’t hold the oxygen (tube) in my mouth because of that.”

Don then spent the next several months working as an office courier for a local company, then went to see the United States Navy. “I had no problem with the Navy because they used masks for their oxygen.” The young man enlisted in September of 1943.

Undergoing basic training at Naval Station Great Lakes in Illinois, Wilson said he best remembers his recruit class’?physical training instructor.

“We had probably 130 recruits in my class. The drill officer, he had the ability to run backwards for what seemed like 50 miles without getting tired. That guy was something else. He’d say, ‘Double-time,’ and we’d start running, and he’s running backwards. Some of the guys would fall out, couldn’t keep up with him. I got such a kick out of that, one of the funniest things I ever saw. I ended up graduating as number two in physical fitness out of our class.”

Wilson remarked that, towards the end of basic, an officer addressed his class, asking for volunteers for either submarine duty or aviation. “I sure didn’t want submarines because you’re (confined), so I went with aircraft.”

Sent to Memphis, Tennessee, the young sailor completed training on aviation radio operation. “I learned all kinds of codes, aircraft identification and such. It was hard. We had the key-type (telegraph) radio, signal lights and the flags. We had to learn all three and I loved it because it was challenging.”

Flight training soon followed at Naval Air Station Fort Lauderdale in Florida, the primary location for Grumman TBF/TBM Avenger air crews.

“We were taught (gunnery) on the .30 caliber machine gun and, of course, we flew a lot. We flew out across the Bermuda Triangle almost every day. We practiced torpedo drops in the water on targets. I was the last man (the Avengers had three-man crews, seated single-file) and I had the radios, the radar and right behind me was the .30 caliber machine gun. In front of me was the gunner, he had a turret gun and in front was our pilot. Once we were together, assigned as a crew, we went through the whole Pacific together.”

Advanced flight training was next,?at Naval Auxiliary Air Station Monterey in California. Here the TBF and TBM crews were formed into squadrons and began carrier-based takeoff and landing instruction. In 1943, while ARM 2nd Class Don Wilson was there, the combined training squadrons dropped a total of 693 training torpedoes in Monterey Bay.

Soon after the weapons would be real, during combat operations in the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean.

“We were assigned to CVE-71, the USS Kitkun Bay. It was smaller than a regular aircraft carrier, they were called ‘escort carriers.’ Our air group aboard was VC-63; my pilot was Fred Schick and our gunner was Ted Prehoden.”

The "VC"?designation indicates a composite squadron, comprised of torpedo planes and fighter aircraft. The Kitkun Bay, having a displacement of 7,800 tons, carried a complement of 28 planes.

“Our group boarded her (Kitkun Bay) at Pearl Harbor. The place was still a mess (from the Japanese attack of Dec.?7, 1941), just damage everywhere. Then we headed out.”

Throughout the rest of the Pacific campaign, Don and his air group participated in naval action at places such as Mariana and Palau Islands, Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima.

“At Iwo we conducted a lot of anti-submarine patrols; we also searched for floating (anti-ship) mines in the waters ahead of the ships and would try to blow them up with machine-gun fire.”

During the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the USS Kitkun Bay was struck by a suicidal Japanese A6M "Zeke"?aircraft. Though it struck the ship, killing one man and wounding 16 others, the explosives packed into the aircraft didn’t detonate. Had the flying bomb exploded as intended, Don has no doubt it would have sunk his ship. “We were out flying on a mission when that happened. One of the crew was able to wrestle the (kamikaze’s) bomb over the side of the ship.”

A sister ship of the Kitkun Bay, the USS Gambier Bay, was sunk during the same battle, along with three escort ships.

Wilson and his shipmates were at Adak, Alaska, preparing for the invasion of the Japanese home islands when the enemy surrendered.

“This parachute-rigger and I were sitting on a sponson on the side of the ship, fishing, we were catching some beautiful fish,” he remarked of when news of surrender arrived. “We took the fish down to our quarters, where we could cook them, and discovered the fish were full of worms. I never ate fish for 40 years after that,” he laughed.

The USS Kitkun Bay ported in Seattle, Washington in January of 1946, where Don eventually mustered out of the Navy.

“I married Donna, my wife, while we were in Memphis.?I found out she was pregnant just before we shipped out for the Pacific. When I got home, I had a little boy.”

Returning to the Marion area, Wilson found work as a construction electrician, eventually going to work for the Erie-Lackawanna railroad as a diesel electrician, working on train engine systems.

“I worked for Erie for 24 years, then I went to the Metro-North railroad in New York City for six years. That was a fantastic job.”

Wilson retired in 1986 and returned to Marion, where he and Donna made their home until her passing in 2010. The ex-sailor spends time at the Marion Senior Center, where he plays pool three times a week. “I also gamble a little bit,” he winked.

Don made an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C. and also returned to Pearl Harbor a few years ago with family. “I visited the ‘Missing In Action’ wall while I was there; the guy who was my best man in our wedding is on that wall, he was shot down in the Pacific and was never found.”

In August of 2018, Donald Wilson was selected as District 5 Area on Aging’s Outstanding Senior Citizen of the Year, in part for his participation as part of the ground crew for the Columbus-based Honor Flight program.

Reflecting on his time in the United States Navy, Wilson stated, “I think young people today should spend two years in the military; they’d learn a heck of a lot that they can’t as a civilian. It teaches respect for others and how to really appreciate our country. I’m very proud of my country and always will be.”

Tim Clark, a retired local law enforcement officer, is now a freelance writer and has a blog, Through an Old Cop's Eyes. Clark can be reached at [email protected] .

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