World War II Veteran Calls War Experience 'Priceless To Me'

Don Johnson, who had  lived in Barrington since 1921 and attended Hough Street School, was experiencing an ordinary day when the world became an unfamiliar place in 1942.  

The 22-year-old was in  bar, enjoying an afternoon with a large group of friends while the radio played behind the happy din. “The Bears were playing and we were all listening to the radio and the news of Pearl Harbor came and the next day we were heading to the draft board and heading to the service,” he remembered.

“It was a war we all felt had to be fought and I still think so,” he added.  “When Pearl Harbor occurred, the next day, everybody who could go, went.”  

His life would be unrecognizable in a matter of months.  “One day you’re working in a grocery store or just out of high school, six months later you’re commanding a bunch of people,” he said.  “You had to depend on everyone else and they had to depend on you and the most difficult part was finding people you could depend on.

Johnson became a bombardier with the Eighth Air Force, based out of England, flying over Germany on countless missions .  Although the memory is so tangible to him -- he can still recall the mechanisms and protocol of releasing bombs from an airplane-- he’d prefer not to dredge up the details.  “Bombadiering was a very dangerous sport,” he offered as a recollection.  

“There are lots of things about the war you don’t want to remember,” he explained.  “And I’ve been successful at forgetting most of it and I don’t like to be reminded of it.”

Yet there are memories that deserve to be shared, according to Johnson, a 92-year-old former warrior, sitting in a bakery with a few of his fellow veterans.  The people that mattered to him then-- and still do--  are foremost in recollections.  ”You make a lot of friends, especially crew members.  They stay with you until you pass away,”

He also found the the day when he stood at the flight board, checking to see if he was to fly a mission worth remembering.  “You didn’t fly every day,” he said as prelude.  “You couldn’t.”  

It was that morning that the word came down that the war in Europe had ended.  “The notice came through that we would be heading home as soon as their were flights available.”  He would soon return home to his mother, and to normalcy.

Despite the cold shoulder he gave to the memory of war, he still speaks of the service as a highlight of his life. “It was an experience that was priceless to me.  It made me grow up and make decision for myself.”  

“I wouldn’t take a million dollars to do what I went through again.  But it was worth over a million dollars to me.”