Donald Draxler was born in Glenwood City, Wisconsin in July 1923. His home town was near the "Twin Cities" [Annotator’s Note: Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota] and he remained there until he went to college in 1941. It was a small dairy farming community. He went to college in Madison [Annotator's Note: Madison, Wisconsin]. Draxler saw his first three story building in Madison. Draxler was one of eight children. The family lived on a 300 acre dairy farm during the Great Depression. Draxler milked cows and sent the milk to a cheese factory. He had to do everything by hand. The family got a tractor in the early 1930s, but it did not help much. Draxler did not know he was poor. The family gave food away to their neighbors. His father was a local politician and had many friends. In 1933 when Prohibition [Annotator's Note: period of time in the United States when liquor was illegal, 1920 to 1933] ended, each town could issue a liquor license. Draxler's town gave three liquor licenses. The family had all the food it needed and gave food away. Franklin Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] asked farmers to pour excess milk away and to kill excess pigs to raise prices. Draxler's father did not follow that order. He fed the milk to the cows. Draxler's family was religious. Draxler wanted to go to college like his uncle. He managed to save 800 dollars, which he used for college. Draxler had a part time job in college and also earned extra money by doing ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps]. He was at his part time job when his coworkers told him about the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. They asked him which branch of service he was going to join. He told them he would join the Army since he was in ROTC. Most of them joined within 90 days. Draxler waited until February [Annotator's Note: February 1942] to enlist so he could get credit for that semester of school. The country was at war, they were young men, and it was a challenge. Draxler hitchhiked home that Christmas. He told his parents he was going to enlist. His father told him he was not allowed to go into the service during World War 1 because his father died, leaving him alone to work the farm. One of Draxler's brothers wanted to buy the farm. Draxler and his father decided to join the Army together. They were not allowed to stay together because of the deaths of the Sullivan brothers [Annotator's Note: five brothers who served on the same ship in the Navy and were all killed when their ship was sunk off of Guadalcanal]. Draxler qualified for OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school], which he went to, and his father became a sergeant and was stationed on Kiska [Annotator's Note: Kiska, Aleutian Islands] and Attu [Annotator's Note: Attu, Aleutian Islands] for the duration of the war. Both father and son returned home at the same time. They enlisted at Fort Snelling [Annotator's Note: near Bloomington, Minnesota] in February and started active duty in March.

At Fort Snelling [Annotator's Note: near Bloomington, Minnesota], Donald Draxler and his father enlisted in the Army. Draxler was in the infantry ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps], and he wanted to go where the action was. He got on a troop train bound for Fort Roberts, California [Annotator's Note: near San Miguel, California]. While passing through Phoenix [Annotator's Note: Phoenix, Arizona], the train went over a hill and Draxler saw green grass. Draxler did not know there could be grass in winter. The two Draxlers did their basic training at Fort Roberts. They both became squad sergeants. They never called each other son or dad. The Army knew they were father and son, but it was never an issue. They competed because they were in separate squads. They finally separated after boot camp. Draxler wanted to go off to war immediately, but also wanted to get the college credit. Draxler's future wife told him kids in her class lied about their age to join the military. Every young man wanted to defend their country. It was nice to have his father in basic training. Draxler's dad liked to play poker and would play the game with other sergeants. He was a good card player. Draxler like to watch him play because he could make some money bringing snacks to the game. His father was 43 years old. There were some other older men there too. Draxler was surprised by how many men were 30 or older. The older guys were capable of doing the job. Sometimes, the older Draxler would help the younger on the course. His father was in good shape because he was a farmer. Draxler did his OCS [Annotator's Note: officer candidate school] training at Fort Benning, Georgia. It was the toughest 90 days of his life. He had to stand tall all the time. The sergeant was tough. He made the recruits clean a yard after he found a cigarette butt on it. They were taught how to be tough, authoritative, and how to handle men. It was tougher than basic training. He learned many technical things. Draxler did hikes, physical activities, field trips, and other things during training. They wanted to eliminate the people that were not capable. Draxler did everything he was told to do. He learned a lot in the 90 days. Only a couple of guys quit. Some of the men were not ready to undertake that kind of training. It was best to just do what they said to do. Draxler does not remember the unit he trained with. After OCS, he was shipped to Camp Gruber, Oklahoma. Draxler thought the weather was bad. He trained with the 88th Infantry Division. There were many second lieutenants in the division. He became friends with a man in OCS who ended up in the same company in the division. They lived in the same room and were both from Minnesota. The men were told they would be going to Italy in the spring. The men slept outside, even in the cold. Draxler was told not to take his shoes off, but he did anyway. It was difficult to put his shoes back on. They did mountain training there.

In early April [Annotator's Note: April 1943], second lieutenants were asked to volunteer for duty in the Pacific. Donald Draxler and his friend both signed up. Draxler signed up so he would not have to fight in the mountains of Italy. He did not like being that cold. Eight other men signed up too. They transferred to Pittsburg, California, where they remained for a few weeks before shipping out in May 1943. It took 11 days to arrive in Hawaii. The LST [Annotator's Note: Landing Ship, Tank] zig-zagged [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] across the Pacific [Annotator's Note: Pacific Ocean]. Draxler was in the bottom of the ship and got sick during the journey. He arrived at Schofield Barracks [Annotator's Note: an Army installation near Honolulu, Hawaii] on Oahu [Annotator's Note: an island in the Hawaiian Islands]. The next day, he was separated from his friend and never saw him again. Draxler named his son after his friend. He received a letter from his friend, then a notice that he was killed in action. Draxler visited his friend's family after the war. His brother survived the war. The accommodations on the LST were bad. He was constantly falling out of his bunk because the ship zig-zagged so much. The second lieutenants were referred to as cannon fodder. Draxler immediately got seasick when the ship started its cruise. After the first day, Draxler never got seasick again. The men had a song about how they felt leaving for war. The men knew the war would last many years. Draxler never considered he would be wounded or killed. He wrote many letters to his girlfriend. Every officer had a PFC [Annotator's Note: Private First Class] attached to them to run errands for them. Draxler's PFC was hit the first day in combat. When Draxler arrived in Hawaii, he was assigned to the 27th Infantry Division from Albany, New York. The unit trained in the States [Annotator's Note: United States] then they did guard duty on Oahu. Draxler was in the 106th Infantry Regiment [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 106th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division] at Scofield Barracks. The unit's job was to get ready for combat. When Draxler arrived, he was told the unit would be leaving in a few months. He served at Hickam Field [Annotator's Note: [Annotator’s Note: now Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu County, Hawaii]. While in Hawaii, Draxler was on the firing line with some of his men. A colonel drove up and Draxler met up with him. He told the colonel he could not get his men to fire their rifles correctly. The colonel told him to try harder, and eventually the men started firing their rifles correctly. The colonel was killed on Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Marianas Islands] on the same day Draxler was wounded. For the rest of his life, Draxler remembered the advice the colonel gave him that day. The men in his platoon were the same as the men he knew in basic training. Most of them had been in the National Guard. Draxler thought they were wonderful men. Many of the men were older in age. The men from upstate New York were laid back. Draxler did not have any issues with the men in the unit.

In November [Annotator's Note: November 1943], Donald Draxler was told he would be going into combat as a reserve regiment [Annotator's Note: Draxler was an infantry officer in Company C, 1st Battalion, 106th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division]. In December 1943, the 165th Regiment of the 27th Division [Annotator's Note: 165th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division] went ashore on Makin [Annotator's Note: Makin Atoll, Kiribati, Gilbert Islands] and Tarawa [Annotator's Note: Tawawa Atoll, Kiribati, Gilbert Islands] in the Gilbert Islands. Draxler never got out of his boat. He heard it was a tough fight, but was never asked for help. On Christmas Day, Draxler's unit did a mock invasion on Maui [Annotator's Note: Maui Island, Hawaiian Islands]. He returned to Schofield Barracks [Annotator's Note: an Army installation near Honolulu, Hawaii]. He was loaded up again to act as a reserve unit for the 105th Regiment [Annotator's Note: 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division] during the invasion of Kwajalein [Annotator's Note: Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall Islands] in the Marshall Islands. This time, Draxler went ashore to do mopping up duty. His unit did not take any casualties. The following week, he was sent to Eniwetok Atoll [Annotator's Note: Enewetok Atoll, Marshall Islands] and Parry Island [Annotator’s Note: Parry Island, Marshall Islands] where he was in the first wave of the invasion. His mission was to capture an airfield. It was a tough battle. Draxler went ashore with the Marines and another Army unit. There were Japanese snipers in the trees. The men went ashore with small tanks used to make a path. The snipers would get behind the Americans. It took three days to clear the area. The first two days were the worst. During the first night, Draxler was halfway across the island. The men could not stay in a line because of the snipers. They all dug slit trenches to lay in. They slept with knives in their hands. Draxler fell asleep, but soon a man was on him with their hands on his mouth. It turned out to be a sergeant who had a grenade roll into his trench. The next morning, the grenade was shown to be a rock. The event scared Draxler. On the third day, he reached the end of the island. The Japanese were not wearing much clothing because it was hot. Draxler was told not to take prisoners because they liked to booby trap themselves with explosives. Draxler never took a prisoner. On the third day, Japanese soldiers ran into the water and the Americans shot them. Draxler remained there for three weeks. There were hundreds of bodies on the islands. The Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] came in and buried the Americans. Draxler had to help clean up the dead Japanese. The smell was terrible. The Japanese dead were buried in a mass grave. The Catholic priest for the unit slept with the officers and Draxler became friends with him. Fresh food was brought to the island. The colonel threatened to court martial any man caught stealing food. The priest told Draxler to get some of the food for the group. Draxler did not do it, but they both laughed about it.

In March or April [Annotator's Note: March or April 1944], Donald Draxler returned to Schofield Barracks [Annotator's Note: an Army installation near Honolulu, Hawaii]. His unit [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 106th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division] was put aboard another ship and brought to Guam, Saipan, and Tinian in the Mariana Islands. His unit was in the second wave that invaded Saipan on 16 June. When he went ashore at Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands], the men had to wade ashore, making easy targets for the Japanese. On Saipan, he barely lost anyone. The first night on the island, Draxler slept in a jewelry store in Garapan. There was jewelry all over the place. There were snipers on the island, but it was bigger and more open then Eniwetok. There was a large mountain in the middle of the island called Mount Tapochau. Draxler’s unit was supposed to go up the west side of the mountain. The unit had been ashore about a week. It was very hot and the men did not have a change of clothes. Draxler started up the mountain. He fought side by side with the Marines. Hidden machine guns would fire on the Americans. It was hard to spot the guns because they were in caves. When they got close, the Americans would throw grenades into the caves. It was impossible to spot the guns until the men were close to them. Draxler was the only officer left in his unit, but he was in the reserve. The men shot into large trees looking for snipers. Draxler was the company commander because of attrition. The Japanese shot to wound so more Americans would come out of hiding to help the wounded man. He was sitting down when the colonel radioed in. When Draxler sat down to look at a map, he was shot three times, but did not feel the bullets. The medics came to get him. Draxler's men shot the sniper, who fell out of the tree with a briefcase and a blanket. Draxler kept those items. The sniper had been retreating and decided to shoot whomever he thought was in charge. Draxler was put on a jeep. He had no pain, but his hand would not work. One of the bullets severed a nerve in his elbow. While on his way to a medic tent, he ran into his friend the Catholic priest. Draxler was then told that the colonel had been killed. He was brought to a tent hospital on an airstrip. All of the patients were dug into the ground. Draxler remained there all day and night for three days. He was then put onto an LCVP [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP] and brought to a hospital ship. That was the second worst day of Draxler's life. While in the LCVP, he looked up and saw that it [Annotator's Note: the hospital ship] was a converted air craft carrier. He was pulled up to the flight deck with a rope. It scared Draxler. The ship steamed back to Hawaii. Draxler slept in a pilot's room. He remained in Hawaii for three weeks. He heard his friend was in a mental ward. Draxler visited his friend, but his friend did not recognize him.

Donald Draxler was brought back to Hawaii [Annotator's Note: after being wounded during the Battle of Saipan] and remained there for three weeks. The doctors told him they could not help him because of severed nerves. On the trip home, nobody complained. He was brought home on a converted DC-4 [Annotator's Note: Douglas DC-4 transport aircraft, military version called the C-54 Skymaster] hospital plane. Early in the morning, Draxler woke up to ask if the plane had enough gas to get to the mainland. It took 17 hours to make the flight. The plane was bigger than a DC-3 [Annotator's Note: Douglas DC-3 transport aircraft, military version was called the C-47 Skytrain] and had more engines. From San Rafael [Annotator's Note: San Rafael, California], he was sent to Galesburg, Illinois, where he stayed at another hospital. He arrived there in early September [Annotator's Note: September 1944]. The doctor told him it would take several operations to fix him. Draxler was given a ten day leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] before the surgeries started. Draxler's future wife finished high school while he was away and went to Saint Paul, Minnesota to work for Montgomery Ward [Annotator's Note: Montgomery Ward Inc, retail enterprise]. When she heard Draxler would be home, she took time off. One night, they were talking and Draxler asked how much she made working. He then proposed to her. After his first surgery, Draxler got married. They remained in Galesburg for the remaining surgeries. Draxler was discharged in July 1946. He received seven surgeries. His hand is numb, but he has use of it, though the nerve has been broken several times since the war.

Donald Draxler was discharged from the Army in July 1946. He bought a house in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Draxler wanted to go back to university. After every surgery, he was sent home for roughly 90 days while the nerve grew back. It took months for the nerve to grow, but Draxler kept breaking them. He attended the University of Minnesota [Annotator's Note: Minneapolis, Minnesota] to study farming. He would do his surgeries between quarters. He attended college for a year, but flunked out. Draxler could not remember anything he learned in class. The following year, he re-enlisted. Draxler sold his house and car. He had a child during that time. The family moved into Draxler's parent's house. His father had just returned from his own service. Draxler received a letter saying his disability was too severe, so he could not join. Draxler's father helped him get into a local farming job. Draxler started a feed store. The company lasted for five years selling products to farmers. His second daughter was born deaf, so the family moved Delavan, Wisconsin where she could go to school for the deaf. The school was not good. They looked at another school in Wisconsin for his daughter. His wife was not doing well. His business was sold for good money. He looked for schools in California. The family moved to Fresno, California. Draxler found a job in a feed store. Everyone was happy with the situation. Eventually, Draxler was fired because he was making too much money. He started working in the life insurance business. The deaf school closed, and he was offered a job in Denver, Colorado. In 1960, Draxler moved to Loveland [Annotator's Note: Loveland, Colorado] and started a business there. Draxler got into the real estate business. He developed property for 25 years. Loveland was a good place for property development. He wanted to create cheap housing, but the community did not want that. His wife asked him to quit developing, so he did.

At Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands], Donald Draxler was apprehensive, but not afraid to lead men the first time. He had to instill in the men the feeling that it was something they had to do for their country and families. Some of the men were afraid, but most were not. Tokyo Rose [Annotator's Note: nickname given by Allied servicemen to any English speaking female radio personality broadcasting Japanese propaganda in the Pacific Theater] was on the radio all of the time. The men got mad and wanted to get into battle. Draxler did not have any personal animosity towards the Japanese, just their government. They bounced around in the LCVPs [Annotator's Note: Landing Craft Vehicle, Personnel or LCVP]. All the men wanted to go ashore. The vessel hit a reef and dumped its men on it. Draxler's platoon did not take many casualties, but another platoon did. The men wanted to get ashore because being in the LCVP was miserable. Draxler only had one coward in his unit [Annotator's Note: Company C, 1st Battalion, 106th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division]. A few days before he was wounded on Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands], one of his men shot himself in the foot. A colonel did not believe the man and threatened to court martial [Annotator's Note: military tribunal] the soldier. While on Eniwetok, Draxler's unit was advancing towards a crater. He was being shelled. Some of the fire was coming from friendly forces. The ships bombarded the island. Draxler was laying in the crater when a shell went off near him. The shell killed his runner and another officer's runner. Draxler was thrown out of the shell hole. He lost his hearing. Draxler was not sure it was a Japenese shell because it was so big. Draxler lost a few men while going ashore. When the front of his LCVP opened, his men waded ashore. The Japanese were not trained on his position, so they were not heavily fired on. The snipers hid in the trees, but it was harder to find the ground troops. Draxler's job was to keep his men moving forward, not to kill the enemy. There was a small tank that would clear a path for the men. There was a spat of friendly fire between the soldiers and the Marines. The Japanese ran into the water, where the soldiers were able to see them and fire on them. Draxler does not think he did his best while on Eniwetok. He lost men. He did not think too much about his performance during the time. The men were concerned about preparing for the next battle. Draxler was coherent after he was wounded. The men patted him on the leg. Draxler's men were able to kill the sniper that shot him. He knew he was finished because he could not use his hand. It was roughly a quarter of a mile from his position to the colonel's position. While en route to the colonel, sniper fire opened up on his party. Draxler was able to run the rest of the way to the aid station. He does not think anyone was wounded. In the battalion station, the colonel was killed by a sniper. On Parry Island [Annotator's Note: Parry Island, Marshall Islands], Draxler walked the island three times looking for hidden Japanese troops. Draxler spent alot of time in troop ships. Occasionally a kamikaze pilot made an attempt on the convoys. He saw some pilots wearing helmets, which Draxler did not understand. Only one pilot came close to hitting a ship. Draxler did not think much about those pilots. He does not think he killed anyone during the war because he barely shot his gun.

Donald Draxler was mad at the Japanese for the attack on Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941] and for a submarine attack against the mainland. He thought the Japanese were trying to take the country. He was taught he was trying to protect his family. The people were not aware the Navy had been destroyed at Pearl Harbor. Draxler knew he needed to chase the Japanese back to Japan. All of the troop convoys were escorted. The size of the war was incomprehensible. Draxler would not be surprised if there were 30 ships going out with his ship. They were able to attack Saipan, Tinian, and Guam [Annotator's Note: all three are islands in the Northern Mariana Islands] at the same time. There were three divisions used during those attacks. Draxler was apprehensive, but was not afraid. He did not think he would be killed or even hit. The Japanese would hit a man in the arm or leg, knocking them out of combat for some time. Draxler knew the war would be won. He thinks the Germans were sure they would win too. The year he went to university, he and a difficult time. When he returned home, it was much easier. While he was in the hospital, he had issues with post traumatic stress. One time, he abused his wife. When he left the hospital, it got easier. Most of the men who returned had issues like that. Draxler knew he would be an economics major and wanted to work for the government. When he got out of the military, his life was different. He flunked out of college and got married. Draxler was happy for the change in direction. His store and other careers were all good to him. There was a prisoner of war camp near where he lives. There are some remains there. Draxler goes to veterans' lunches and is a member of the American Legion and Disabled Veterans [Annotator's Note: Disabled American Veterans, a veterans association]. It is like a fraternity. The veterans do not talk about the war much. Draxler's most memorable moment in the war was when his firend laid on him in a foxhole. It was the only time he was afraid. He thought it was a Japanese soldier killing him. The other time he was afraid was when he was transported onto a hospital ship. One time, Japanese troops infiltrated his camp. Draxler was given salt pills for sweat. His uniform changed colors because of the sweat. Draxler believes you can do anything if you put your mind to it. He believes it is important to teach the history of World War 2. He believes there has not been peace in the world since the war. He does not believe there will be peace because of different religions and ethnicities not getting along. He wishes there was a system in the country that taught respect and discipline in people when they graduated high school.