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| Major Donald Younglas served as a P-47 pilot with the 367th Fighter Squadron based in England. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/96405966/donald-a-younglas https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/aircrafts-2-3/p-47/p-47d-44-20244-thats-urass-of-the-367th-fs-358th-fg-cp-j/ |
Donald A. Younglas never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on April 4, 1919 in Michigan. His parents Avery and Clara were also both born in Michigan. His father owned a sheet metal business. Donald had one younger sister. By 1940 Donald had completed one year of college and was living with his parents. He was working as a clerk.
He joined the Army Air Corp in October 1940. He was trained as fighter pilot and became a major in the 367th Fighter Squadron, 358th Fighter Group, 8th Airforce ,which was equipped with P-47 Thunderbolts. It arrived in England in July 1943. Its primary role was to escort American bombers on their missions to bomb the European mainland. With the rank of major, Donald Younglas likely served in some level of leadership, but I was not able to find documentation with any details.
On January 4, 1944 Major Younglas took off on a mission to escort bombers bound for Ludwigshaven, Germany. There was a mechanical failure that caused the plane to immediately crash, killing Major Younglas.
His grave is at Sunset Hills Cemetery in Flint, Michigan.
This is the 800th profile published so far. Somewhat of a milestone, but it only represents 8 of the 4,048 stars on the World War II Memorial, where each star represents 100 of the fallen.
Last year on this date I profiled Cpl. Vernon Slate, 3rd Armored Division. You can read about Vernon here.
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!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
Hello from France,
ReplyDeleteI have the document on the place of the crash of Donald A Douglas plane + parts of his plane - thank you for making contact - Bernard Feutry -- MAIL bfcp76@laposte.net