Name: Donald Allen Durkee Rank: Fireman First Class Service Number: 7619479 Service: USS S-28 (SS-133), US Submarine Force, United States Navy Awards: Purple Heart Date of Birth: April 23, 1926 Place of Birth: Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts Date of Enlistment: May 14, 1943 Place of Enlistment: Naval Recruitment Station, Boston, Massachusetts Address at Enlistment: Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts Age at Enlistment: 17 Date of Death: July 4, 1944 Age: 18 Memorial: Honolulu Memorial, National Cemetery of the Pacific, O’ahu, Hawaii Reference: Court 3, Courts of the Missing Commemorated on the National Submarine Memorial, West, Seal Beach, California Donald Allen Durkee was the son of Alonzo Willis Durkee (1897-1975) born in Hebron, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, and Clara Gertrude (DeWinter) Durkee (1895-1978) born in South Alton in Kings Co., NS, and the sister of Ruth Allison Durkee Wood (1922-2006). Donald’s father Alonzo Durkee served Canada during the First World War (Service Number 733553), having enlisted December 21, 1917, with the 112th Battalion while living in Chegoggin. He served with the Royal Canadian Regiment in France, and was wounded by gas attack October 29, 1917, survived and was discharged March 15, 1919. Donald’s uncle Lester Pearl Durkee served during both the First World War and Second World War. After enlisting on May 14, 1943, at NRS Boston, Donald was received 3 days later at the Naval Training School in Newport, Rhode Island. On June 16, 1943, he was promoted from Able Seaman to Seaman Second Class. On July 13, 1943, he transferred to the Naval Training Station in Richmond, Virginia for specialized training as a Motor Machinist’s Mate, under a service school order. On September 25, 1943, he was received in New London, Connecticut, for Submarine School. December 17, 1943, he was promoted to Fireman First Class. On January 24, 1944, Donald was transferred from New London, Connecticut, to Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California, northeast of San Francisco, for further assignment. By February 6, 1944, he was received by Submarine Division Forty-Two (Relief Crew) at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, having arrived from the Submarine Base in New London. His name appears on the division’s muster rolls dated February 29, April 30, and May 31, 1944. The April 30 muster roll identifies the relief crew assignment as associated with the USS Nautilus (SS-168). While this may suggest he was temporarily attached to the Nautilus, definitive evidence of his service aboard during its eighth war patrol remains inconclusive. It is possible he joined the vessel in late January prior to its departure from Pearl Harbor on January 24, 1944, for operations north of Palau and west of the Mariana Islands. The Nautilus had returned to Pearl Harbor on December 4, 1943, to prepare for her eighth war patrol. It was conducted north of Palau and west of the Mariana Islands from January 27, 1944, having departed Pearl on January 24th. On May 14, 1944, the USS Nautilus sank the Japanese transport America Maru, and damaged three cargo ships. Donald’s final posting was on the USS S-28, which he joined on June 30, 1944, from the submarine base at US naval base No. 128 (Pearl Harbor). He died 4 days later with all 41 others of the S-28 crew when it was lost off the coast of Pearl Harbor near O’ahu, Hawaii on July 4, 1944. USS S-28 was engaged in routine training exercises off the coast of O’ahu, under the command of Lt. Cmdr. J.G. Campbell. That day, she was conducting sonar drills and practice torpedo approaches with the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance. At approximately 5:30 PM local time, S-28 submerged about 4 miles from Reliance to begin a simulated attack run. Initially, Reliance maintained sound contact with the submarine, but by 6:20 PM, the contact was permanently lost. No distress signals were received, and no signs of explosion were detected. When S-28 failed to surface or communicate, a search was launched involving multiple vessels. The only trace found was a slick of diesel oil on the surface. Donald has no known grave, and he is remembered in the Courts of the Missing at the Honolulu Memorial, National Cemetery of the Pacific, O’ahu, Hawaii. In 1965, at the request of Donald’s father, a flat bronze Veterans grave marker was placed at Puritan Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Peabody, Massachusetts, the same cemetery where Donald’s parents are interred. The USS S-28’s location on the seabed was located in 2017 and remains the final resting place for the lost crew who are all remembered on the Honolulu Memorial.

Sources: findagrave 1901 Census of Canada U.S., Headstone Applications for Military Veterans, 1861-1985 (October 15, 1965).