Donald Albert Carlson was born in June 1924. [Annotator's Note: Carlson stops to see if he can hear the interviewer better with or without his hearing aids.] He was born in Erie, Pennsylvania on Lake Erie. The city was heavily involved in the manufacturing of industrial products during World War 1. He had a middle class family. His dad worked for the railroad so he was employed during the Depression [Annotator's Note: The Great Depression, a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1945]. Carlson attended school and was a regular kid. He was selected to pose a model for artist Eugene Iverd, whose real name was George Erickson [Annotator's Note: George Melvin Erickson often signed his works as George Ericson]. Carlson posed for magazine covers, Wrigley's gum [Annotator's Note: Wm. Wrigley, Jr. Company, known as Wrigley Company; American chewing gum company], and Remington Arms [Annotator's Note: Remington Arms Company, LLC] among others. Carlson went to Academy High School and eventually college. He worked at a variety of jobs. In 1941 he worked as an usher in a movie theater, so he got to see all of the newsreels. That gave him an active interest in the war news. Carlson and several friends went to Penn State [Annotator's Note: Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania] and enrolled in September 1942 in Civil Engineering. On 12 December 1942, he and his roommate decided to join the service. He was advised to join the Reserves by his college administrator so he could stay in college. He was then called to active duty in May 1943.

Donald Albert Carlson enlisted in the Army Air Force [Annotator's Note: in September 1942]. He got on a train from Penn State Penn State [Annotator's Note: Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania] to Atlantic City [Annotator's Note: Atlantic City, New Jersey] where the enlistees were housed at the Hotel Traymore right on the shore. They trained on the boardwalk. Because he had had ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps] training in college, in Atlantic City they thought they were pretty sharp marchers. He then went to a college training detachment in Raleigh, North Carolina at North Carolina State. They took normal college courses for about six or eight weeks. Carlson went to Nashville, Tennessee for classification as a pilot, navigator, or bombardier. He qualified for all three. They had flown Piper Cubs [Annotator's Note: Piper J-3 Cub light observation aircraft] while in Raleigh. He went to Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama which was a lot like a West Point [Annotator's Note: United States Military Academy, West Point, New York] education. They learned Morse Code, aircraft identification, and ship identification. Carlson was sent to Hampton, Arkansas to Cadet training under civilian instructors in PT-19s [Annotator's Note: Fairchild PT-19 primary trainer aircraft]. They had problems with the props [Annotator's Note: propellors], so they switched to PT-23s [Annotator's Note: Fairchild PT-23 primary trainer aircraft]. He was not keen on being a fighter pilot. They practiced slow rolls and once when he turned upside down, he came loose from the seat and was hanging outside of the airplane. He could only hang onto the control stick but managed to land. He was told to take a break and go back up. He next went to basic training in Arkansas where he was trained in the BT-13 [Annotator's Note: Vultee BT-13 Valiant basic trainer aircraft; also known as the Vultee Vibrator]. In advanced school he flew AT-10s [Annotator's Note: Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita multi-engine advanced trainer aircraft] at George Field, Illinois [Annotator's Note: George Field, Lawrenceville, Illinois]. He graduated in August 1944. He got 30 days rest and recuperation before transition school in B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] at Chanute Field [Annotator's Note: Chanute Air Force Base, Champaign County, Illinois]. His group had a person who had been his instructor pilot. That flying made him soaking wet with sweat. The weather turned bad, and they were transferred to Alabama. They had been flying B-24J models. In Alabama, they flew B-24D models which were old, war-weary versions. They went home for 15 days and then went to Lemoore Field, California [Annotator's Note: in Lemoore, California] to pick up their crews. There were four bases they would be assigned to for overseas training, but everyone wanted March Field [Annotator's Note: now March Air Reserve Base, Riverside County, California]. Nobody wanted to go to Tonopah [Annotator's Note: later Tonopah Air Force Base, Nye County near Tonopah, Nevada], but that is where Carlson was sent for the winter.

Donald Albert Carlson had two unfortunate experiences in his overseas training [Annotator's Note: at Tonopah Army Airfield; later Tonopah Air Force Base, Nye County near Tonopah, Nevada]. They flew air to ground gunnery about 50 feet off the ground. They made one pass. On their second time, a waist gunner slipped and fired the .50 caliber machine guns [Annotator's Note: Browning ANM2 .50 caliber machine gun] into the wing. The copilot had flown 25 missions in Italy and said he was now going to be shot down in Tonopah. They made an emergency landing. Because of the mountains, they flew a lot based on quadrants around them. They would drop practice bombs by focusing on lights on the ground. Once one of the crew called and said they had gasoline on the windows. They flew back to their quadrant and landed. Fortunately they did not catch on fire. They got through and did not lose one airplane. They had the best safety record on the West Coast. Pilots were needed for the European Theater. West Coast pilots normally went to the South Pacific. Carlson and his crew went by train to the East Coast and boarded the Il de France [Annotator's Note: the SS Ile de France; also called the SS Normandie] to Europe. They disembarked in Glasgow, Scotland. They went to a relocation base and then to their new base as a replacement. Nobody told them much about the crew they were replacing. They were checked out for flying and learned the area. They flew a practice mission in formation over France. On 25 April, Carlson and the 466th Bomb Group, 786th Squadron [Annotator's Note: 786th Bombardment Squadron, 466th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force], had the last plane that was shot down. Carlson was scheduled to fly the next day. They came around and said that the Allies were too far into Southern Germany now and there was no need to fly anymore. Then life became about preparing to be transferred to the Pacific.

Donald Albert Carlson did a lot of training and was assigned an airplane and a crew [Annotator's Note: in preparation for returning from England to prepare for war in Japan]. His crew chief washed the airplane down to get the best mileage out of it. They were one of the last crews to take off for the United States. The older crews went first so they could get home first. They flew out of Attelbridge in Norwich [Annotator's Note: Royal Air Force Attelbridge; Norwich, Norfolk, England] to Valley Wales [Annotator's Note: South Wales Valleys, England] to Iceland. Then they flew to Labrador to Bradley Field, Connecticut [Annotator's Note: now Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut]. They received 30 days rest and recuperation. They met up at Sioux Falls, South Dakota for reassignment to B-29 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] school. While there, a B-29 crashed into the Empire State Building in New York [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber crash, New York, New York, 28 July 1945]. The men were dispersed all over the United States usually and the crash made them start checking to see where everybody was. Carlson went from Sioux Falls to Las Vegas, Nevada and the war ended. The B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] in Las Vegas were equipped for B-29 gunnery school. His job was taking rated personnel up for flying status so they could get their pay. He did that until he had enough points [Annotator's Note: a point system was devised based on a number of factors that determined when American servicemen serving overseas could return home] to be discharged on 23 December 1945. He went home and went back to Penn State [Annotator's Note: Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania] for Civil Engineering. He graduated in January 1949.

Donald Albert Carlson was in high school [Annotator's Note: when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He remembers the broadcast. He went to school the next day and there was a special auditorium class to listen to President Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States]. He went through the rationing and food stamps and knew the country was preparing for war. This made him know there was going to be a war and he was going to be in it. He chose the Air Force because it seemed like the most glamorous group. [Annotator's Note: Carlson laughs.] His older brother had been drafted into the infantry. He was training in Louisiana and they were so short of equipment they were using sticks instead of rifles. His brother's talk of being in the infantry made Carlson not want to do that. Carlson had built model airplanes. The B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] was an unusual type of aircraft in that it had a Davis wing [Annotator's Note: aircraft wing design]. It made it so the aircraft could go to a higher altitude than a B-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] and could carry a heavier bomb load. They could not see the wingtips while on the ground. They had to have someone direct them, so they did not hit anything. It had four powerful engines that they learned to use as brakes for the aircraft. [Annotator's Note: Carlson tells a funny story about the physiques of the pilot and copilot and describes how to use the aircraft's trim tabs, as well as how to land one.] It was a matter of time after time practice in landing the plane. A lot of repetition. Usually it was four people at a time with someone watching the flying being done. Carlson liked the aircraft. There was a lot of controversy between the B-17 and B-24 pilots. The B-17 could lose an engine and glide, but the B-24 would drop like a rock. Carlson never experienced that. He enjoyed the plane.

The theater of conflict he was going to be assigned to after training made no difference to Donald Albert Carlson. You got your orders and then you knew where you were going. There was no choice but even so, he had no preference. His copilot was the oldest man on the crew at 26 years old. He had been a pilot at a training school. The radio operator was 25 years old. The rest were either 20 or 21. The navigator had been to college. The nose gunner had gone to the University of Oregon [Annotator's Note: in Eugene, Oregon]. He returned there after the war, re-entered the service, and ultimately ended up in the Pentagon. Carlson kept in touch after the war. Once he and his wife visited all of them in the places where they lived. This was when computers were first coming out and he used to one to trace them all down. In Europe, Carlson only got to fly one practice mission over France. It was about 12 to 15 planes. Each group had an airplane they formed up on. His group, the 466th [Annotator's Note: 786th Bombardment Squadron, 466th Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force], had a plane painted like a zebra. They went to an assigned position based on that. The zebra plane did not go into combat after everyone formed up. Carlson had a bombardier at the classification center that was taken away and put on the lead aircraft. Their aircraft had a togglier who opened the bomb bays and dropped the bombs based on watching the lead plane. His practice mission was towards the latter part of April [Annotator's Note: April 1945]. There was no actual gunnery taking place at the time. It was all finished. Carlson never flew any combat missions.

After the war, trolley missions were flown to show ground personnel the damage that had been done to Germany. Donald Albert Carlson was ready to go on his first one, but weather cancelled the mission. He never got to fly one. His plane did not have a nickname or picture on it. He was told his plane was valued at 250,000 dollars. His crew chief was strict about his airplane. It was as neat and clean as it could be so it performed the best it could. Carlson never met him until they were assigned to the airplane. Life on base in England was not much of anything. They had to go to ground school or the flight line and take the crew up to fly around and get acquainted with the area. Their field was difficult to land in and required a lot of practice. They also had to stay proficient. Carlson went to London [Annotator's Note: London, England] once on a three-day pass [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. He went to a Red Cross shelter there on Jerman Street near Picadilly Circus [Annotator's Note: public space in London]. He went to Hyde Park [Annotator's Note: a Royal Park in London], rode double-decker buses and did general sightseeing.

Donald Albert Carlson was fortunate to be in the service for two and a half years. He took advantage of the G.I. Bill, otherwise he would not have been able to finish college due to not having the finances for it. It was an exciting experience, but once is enough. Carlson thinks the Museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] is important. He goes to a lot of them around the country. He supports the 8th Air Force Museum [Annotator's Note: National Museum of the Mighty Eighth Air Force in Pooler, Georgia] and the World War 2 Museum. He got involved in the Make-A-Wish Foundation [Annotator's Note: non-profit organization] in Denver [Annotator's Note: Denver, Colorado]. They made it possible for him to go and take part in this interview. He got his degree in Civil Engineering and retired in 1986 at 62 years old. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks his wife off-camera if he said everything, and she says he did great.]