 |
| Lt. Donald Christensen and a memorial built by local Czechs near the location where his plane crashed. http://carryingfire.blogspot.com |
Donald Roy Christensen never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on September 3, 1917 in Utah. His parents were also both born in Utah. Three of his grandparents were born in Denmark. His father worked as a farmer but by 1930 the family moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a watchman and still later as a government information man (whatever that is). Donald had twelve older siblings -- six sisters and six brothers. He completed four years of college and was sent by the LDS Church to serve as a missionary in Denmark. His missionary service was cut short when the war started in Europe and he left Copenhagen and steamed for Boston in October 1939. By 1940 he was once again living with his parents.
Donald married Jocile Ursenbach on October 27, 1941. They had one son, Don, and she was pregnant with a second son, Steve, when Donald was killed who was born three months later.
He enlisted in the Army Air Forces on June 3, 1943. He became a second lieutenant and pilot in 603rd Bombardment Squadron, 398th Bombardment Group 8th Air Force which was equipped with B-17s.
On March 2, 1945 Lt. Christensen was flying his plane over Slany, Czechoslovakia on his fifth mission. The tail was shot off by enemy fighter planes. Christensen and all of his crew save one were killed.
His grave is at Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. His widow remarried after Donald's death. She died in 2005.
His son Don Christensen has a wonderful blog (http://carryingfire.blogspot.com) where he shares his quest to discover more about his father. It is well worth a visit.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
To mark having over 100,000 visits to my project to honor the fallen of WW2 on their 100th birthdate, I created this video to share. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY. Now more than 200 fallen have been profiled with more than 200,000 visits. Is there interest in seeing a similar video highlighting those from the group of second 100?
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
Thank you for caring about these men who gave so much for us that they never had a chance to meet.
ReplyDelete