"There isn't any place which looks as good to me as our home field after a cold hard mission." (Memoirs, page 158)

Donald L. Spencer

Donald Spencer, circa 1943. War: World War, 1939-1945 Branch: Army Air Forces/Corps Unit: 584th Bomb Squadron, 394th Bomb Group, 9th Air Force Service Location: England; France; Holland; Germany Rank: Sergeant Place of Birth: CO

When he enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1943, Donald Spencer was familiar with barracks-style living--he had grown up with four brothers and five sisters. But this 18-year-old from the Midwest was soon thrust into a less familiar world, of bombing missions over Belgium, Holland, and Germany. Spencer and three of his brothers serving in the military wrote home frequently, and their mother kept every scrap of mail, as well pertinent clippings from Stars and Stripes. Years later Spencer assembled her archives for a moving portrait of one family's enormous contribution to the war effort.