Name: Donald Ross MacDonald Rank: Captain Service Number: 20118680, 01041193 Service: United States Army Air Force Date of Birth: June 7, 1918 Place of Birth: Butte, Silver Bow County, Montana Date of Enlistment: September 16, 1940 Place of Enlistment: Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 22 Address at Enlistment: Roxbury, Boston, Suffolk Co., Massachusetts Height: 5 feet, 6 inches Occupation: Accountant Marital Status: Single Religion: Roman Catholic Next of Kin: Christina Patterson (Mother) Date of Death: October 10, 1944 Age: 26 Cemetery: St. Joseph Cemetery, West Roxbury, Massachusetts Grave: Section VIN6, Lot 245 Donald Ross MacDonald was the son of Alexander Alex ‘Sandy’ MacDonald (1883-1922) and Christina ‘Christy’ Mary (Ross) MacDonald (1892-1987), and the brother of John A. MacDonald (1920-1994) & Lester J. MacDonald (b. 1922). Both of Donald Ross’s parents were born and raised in Arisaig, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia. Donald’s parents moved to Montana where his father Alexander worked in mining. They married in Butte Montana on March 31, 1917. Alex died in a mining accident shortly after his third son Lester’s birth. His mother subsequently moved to Boston with her children, and later married Herman Haggett Patterson (1890-1970) of Boston, Massachusetts, in approximately 1932. Donald’s brother John served in the USAAF during WWWI, as did his brother Lester who served in the US Navy and was awarded the Purple Heart. Donald initially enlisted with the 6th Coast Artillery, United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. He likely served with the 241st Coast Artillery Regiment, a Massachusetts National Guard artillery regiment, mobilized on September 16, 1940, prior to Pearl Harbor for duty as part of the harbor defenses of Boston. When Donald enlisted in September of 1940, he was living on Moreland Street with his brothers, mother and his step-father in Roxbury, Boston, Mass. Donald’s military role after joining the Coastal Artillery is not known, but he makes the Grade of Captain by 1944. On October 10, 1944, he is at Hamilton Field near San Rafael north of San Francisco. It was first called Air Corps Station San Rafael but in 1932 it was officially renamed Hamilton Field and designed to have bombers. The base was found to be too small for the new four engine bombers being developed and changed to be a fighter plane base. It was still a stopover base for planes going to Hawaii, and on December 6, 1941, in a famous incident Six (6) B-17 Bombers took off from Hamilton Field for Hawaii and planned to land at fields and meet, Japanese Naval Aircraft who were attacking the very airfields they were trying to land at on the morning of December 7, 1941. On October 10, 1944, Captain Donald Ross MacDonald and six others; Pilot Colonel Stuart G Hall, Major William J McCurry, Captain Kendall W Shepard, Captain Nicholas J Gilsdorf, Captain Gordon R Tanner and Sergeant James Leo Brichett, took off in twin-engine Beechcraft UC-45F Expeditor aircraft #43-35818, and the aircraft crashed one half mile northeast of McNairs Pt. San Rafael California. The Beechcraft, or “Twin Beech,” planes were a standardized seven-to eleven seat version based on an earlier Model 18 but with a longer nose, used for light transport, light bomber, aircrew training & photo reconnaissance. Donald’s funeral took place at the St. Patrick’s Church, and he was interred at the St. Joseph Cemetery in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, on November 4, 1944. His brother John Alexander rests in the same cemetery and section, but in Lot 292. Their brother Lester is interred at the Blue Hill Cemetery in Braintree, Norfolk Co., Massachusetts. Lester named his son for his brother Donald who died in WWII, his name was also Donald Ross MacDonald (1948–2020).