World War II Honoree

Donald L. Polzien

Branch of Service

U.S. Army Air Force

Hometown

Washington, Iowa

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Staff Sergeant. Inducted into the United States Army January 1, 1942 at Fort Crook, Nebraska. Upon his graduation from recruit training, he was designated to attend the Flight Aviation Training Program. He served as a B-24J ‘Liberator’ Bomber Flight Engineer, assigned to the Thirty-Eighth Bomber Squadron, Thirtieth Bomber Group, a subordinate unit of the U.S. Seventh Army Air Forces. His unit was based at Tarawa Airfield ‘Hawkins Field’ on Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll Gilbert Islands Location: Central Pacific Theater of Operations. Report missing in action, lost at Sea Friday, January 21, 1944, when the pilot experienced engine failures during take-off, crashing into the Tarawa Lagoon. In remembrance of the brave, his name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu Memorial Location: Honolulu, Hawaii. In his Memory and Honor, a cenotaph memorial has been placed at the Fort McPherson National Cemetery Maxwell, Nebraska. This American Patriot received the following decorations posthumously: Air Medal and the Purple Heart. The Air Medal was awarded to the Sergeant for meritorious achievement while participating in aerial flight, and the Purple Heart for his Heroism and ultimate sacrifice.