After
graduating from Coshocton High School in 1941, Donovan
worked for Goodyear until 1943, and then entered the Army
Air Corps. He began with basic training at Keesler Field,
Mississippi and then assigned to Radio Mechanics School
in Chicago. From there he advanced to Aviation Cadet training
and was sent to navigational school in Hondo, Texas. Upon
graduation he was given radar navigation training in Boca
Raton, Florida. He was then assigned to the 39th Bomb
Group at Salina, Kansas where he joined the crew of P-32
as navigator. Dal went with his crew to Havana, Cuba for
six weeks for over water training and then returned to
Salina. After picking up their airplane in Wichita, Kansas
and completing staging, they took off for the Pacific
island of Guam for combat.
Dal
recalls the first time that P-32 got hit over Japan. In
his words "The night bombing of Tokyo was a holocaust."
He remembers P-32 limping back to Guam with one or more
engines out. He remembers losing a good friend during
a ditching between Iwo Jima and Guam.
After
the war, Dal left the Army Air Force and in 1946, he entered
U.C.L.A. At the end of his freshmen year there he returned
home and attended college at Ohio State, graduating in
1949, with a major in English.
Following
college, he began working for Jones Metal Products in
West Lafayette, Ohio. In 1951 he met and married Lois
Morrison. They have three children - Lisa, Zachary and
Ann. Dal spent most of his business career in sales at
Jones Metal. In 1983, he became President of the company.
It was Dal who headed up the first P-32 crew reunion at
his home after "37 years between handshakes"
Donovan
looks forward to retirement so he and Lois and relax and
and take it easy at their home in Coschocton, Ohio. |