Donald Strait was born in April 1918 in East Orange, New Jersey, and spent his first five years in Montclair, New Jersey. His father, who worked for the utility company in New Jersey, bought property in Verona, New Jersey and moved the family there. Strait was educated through high school in Verona, but after graduating high school in 1936 he took a job as an insurance clerk in Newark, New Jersey. Strait was an accomplished baseball player, and was pitching for an adult league in 1939 when he injured his shoulder. "Demoralized" that he might never play ball again, and unhappy with his desk job, he enlisted in the 119th Observation Squadron out of Newark Airport, training in 0-46s [Annotator's Note: Douglas O-46 observation aircraft] and 0-47s [Annotator's Note: North American O-47 observation aircraft] on weekends. In September 1940, Strait's squadron was chosen for a year's active duty. He attended aircraft armament school in Denver, Colorado for rfour months, and became an expert gunner. Strait did a lot of flying, and towed targets for the coast artillery off the coast of New Jersey. In late 1941, he enlisted [Annotator's Note: in the regular Army Air Forces] and was sent to Montgomery, Alabama to ascertain whether he would be a pilot, a navigator, or a bombardier. He qualified for flight training, and graduated on 8 January 1943 as a single engine pilot. From there he went to Westover Field in Maryland where a new P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] group was being formed, and Strait was assigned to the 361st Squadron of the 356th Fighter Group [Annotator's Note: 361st Fighter Squadron, 356th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force].

As a member of a new P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] fighter group [Annotator's Note: 361st Fighter Squadron, 356th Fighter Group], Donald Strait trained in New Haven, Connecticut and at Bradley Field in Hartford, Connecticut. The group assembled in New Hampshire, and transferred to Newark, New Jersey to get ready for overseas deployment. While waiting, the crews decided to fill every empty space of their planes with liquor to take along with them to Europe, but after they flew the aircraft to New York, they never saw those planes again. They were assigned different aircraft when they arrived in England. Strait spent the rest of his tour flying operationally out of Martlesham, near Ipswich, England. He returned to New York on V-E Day [Annotator's Note: Victory in Europe Day, 8 May 1945] in 1945. While in England, Strait few 87 missions in the P-47, and is credited with shooting down three airplanes. The first was a Focke-Wulf [Annotator's Note: German Focke Wulf Fw-190 fighter aircraft]. He detected the enemy aircraft while escorting bombers out of Paris and chased it until he hit it and the pilot ejected. He flew eight short sorties on D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] to keep the Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: the German Air Force] at bay during the landings. After his requisite 50 missions, he agreed to continue flying. He was given a 30 day furlough back to the United States aftetr which he returned to England and continued flying. When the missions got out of range for the P-47s, the squadron switched to Mustangs [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] with very little training and no manuals in order to escort the B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] and B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Libertor heavy bomber] to the deep targets such as Berlin and Leipzig.

Recalling some of his more interesting operational experiences, Donald Strait talked about one when he was escorting B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] into Germany. Word came for his squadron [Annotator's Note: 361st Fighter Squadron, 356th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force], nicknamed Chinwag, to investigate a large group of Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German Air Force] assembling, presumably to intercept the bombers. Strait took a group of fighters only a short distance when they ran head on into 150-plus German Fw-190s [Annotator's Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw-190 fighter aircraft] and Me-109s [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me-109 or Bf-109 fighter aircraft]. Strait reported the situation and two other squadrons joined the engagement. First, he saw a 109 and shot him down; then he turned hard right to get a second one and got some hits before the enemy plane went into a cloud. When the plane emerged, Strait's wingman finished it off, and they each got half a kill. That day, the fighter group shot down 23 aircraft and lost no pilots. From then on, Strait became very active in fighter missions. By December [Annotator's Note: December 1944] he had achieved 4.5 kills, and on 5 December he was leading a squadron escorting bombers to Berlin. After the bombing, they turned to face 40 Fw-190s; they shot down 13, and lost 2 pilots including Strait's best friend. Two of those kills were Strait's and qualified him as an "Ace" [Annotator's Note: a fighter pilot with five or more aerial victories]. He had two goals when he went to England: to qualify as a fighter Ace and to become a squadron commander. Shortly after that mission, he was promoted to major and put in charge of a squadron of his own. When the 1944 holidays rolled around, Strait wanted to have a nice party for his squadron and other officers, so he talked a brew master in nearby Ipswich into donating a couple of barrels of beer for a party on Christmas day. This was to be augmented by food from all the care packages Strait's squadron members had received from home. His squadron was not scheduled for a mission, but that morning they were called to work, and because the weather was dicey, they were slated to land in France when they were done. Strait got the only kill that day and by the time the mission was over, the weather in England had cleared. They flew back to Martlesham, and had a big celebration.

In 1940, when Donald Strait joined the Observation Squadron [Annotator's Note: 119th Observation Squadron], it was his childhood interests in building model airplanes, along with his regular wanderings around a nearby airfield on weekends that influenced his thinking. He was aware that the political situation could result in war, and he wanted a position in aviation if that happened. The work of the squadron was to observe flyover activity and report to ground troops, helping to train infantry divisions in the area. The squadron aircraft also towed practice targets, and Strait became a tow-reel operator. He got a lot of flying time that way, which paved the way for him to begin flying as a pilot. Strait started out training on a PT-17 [Annotator's Note: Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet, also known as the PT-17 primary trainer aircraft], and advanced to the much higher-powered P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft], which proved an advantage when be was assigned to the 356th Fighter Group. He was assigned a P-47 on arriving at Gowkshill, Scotland, and spent some time getting to know his airplane and the geography of the eastern coast of England. When the runways in Martlesham Heath, England were ready, he transferred there and got an even nicer plane with a bubble canopy. Prior to D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] he was flying mainly "interdiction" missions providing ground support, attacking enemy airfields and road junctures, martialing yards, and barges. One extraordinary request that Strait made of his squadron commander entailed his activities as an assistant engineering officer. He wanted to know his maintenance crew and the mechanical aspects of his aircraft. Strait continued in that pursuit until he became an operations officer. When he became a squadron commander, he required each pilot to be in the hangar with his plane whenever it was in for service. The pilots didn't like it at the time, but thanked him later for imposing the requirement.

Donald Strait's first victory came when he was escorting B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] that had been attacking targets south of Paris. He happened to spot a couple of Fw-109s [Annotator's Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw-190 fighter aircraft] that split up, and Strait pursued one until the pilot "popped his canopy" and bailed out before the airplane crashed. Strait said he had flown considerably far south and had to drop his tanks and come home at low altitude in order to avoid antiaircraft fire. He was very low on fuel as he crossed the English Channel and had make a grass landing at the first airfield he could find. He returned to base feeling exhilarated and lucky. Before he agreed to a second tour in Europe, Strait was a captain, and it was expedient that by the time he returned from leave his squadron commander had completed his tour and Strait could take his place [Annotator's Note: as the commanding officer of the 361st Fighter Squadron, 356th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force]. After a couple of months in the position, he was promoted to major. It was Major Jesse Auton that commended his ambitions and persuaded Strait to volunteer for a second tour. Embarking on his 30 day leave between tours, Strait sailed on the RMS Mauritania to reach New York, and spent his leave visiting his parents and future wife. Before leaving the United States, he went through a redistribution center in Atlantic City where they tried to talk him out of going back, but Strait was determined and sailed back to England. Revisiting his experiences of D-Day [Annotator's Note: Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944] in Normandy, he recalled that on the night before the operation, the squadron's planes were adorned with invasion stripes [Annotator's Notes: alternating black and white bands painted on fuselages and wings of Allied aircraft to reduce the chance of friendly fire]. On D-Day, the squadron took off before dawn to provide cover at the beachhead for the landing forces. Each fighter group, with 12 planes per squadron, was assigned a sector and patrolled all day long to prevent the Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German Air Force] from attacking the Allied soldiers. Strait said they didn't attack any targets that day, but once the Allied forces were on the move, they stayed ahead of the advancing troops until the Allies crossed the Rhine River.

On returning from the flight that achieved Donald Strait his status as an Ace [Annotator's Note: a fighter pilot with five or more confirmed aerial victories], he was "extremely excited," and had a "hell of a party" at the officers' club. His airplane was nicknamed the "Jersey Jerk" and Strait lived with his squadron [Annotator's Note: 361st Fighter Squadron, 356th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force] on the base, close to his operational equipment. The Battle of the Bulge [Annotator's Note: Battle of the Bulge or German Ardennes Counter Offensive, 16 December 1944 to 25 January 1945] was a "big operation" for Strait's squadron, one in which they flew continuously. Strait's wing man crash landed in the battle area and when he got out of his aircraft, the troops grabbed him, and gave him a helmet and rifle; he was fighting in the forward lines for a week. When he returned to base, he was mentally "shot" and was sent home. Strait said they did a lot of good work during that time. He also lamented the loss of one of his buddies during a mission over Berlin. When Strait was flying back to base, he took stock of his squadron and found two planes missing. His attempts to find out what became of them produced no answers until the Red Cross reported later that they had identified the body of one of the airman. He was buried in Brussels, but Strait never learned how he met his death. He said the Mustang [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] was the most outstanding aircraft he flew during his entire career, and compared it to other planes in terms of range, speed, maneuverability and durability. As far as the enemy's equipment, Strait thought the Fw-190 [Annotator's Note: German Focke-Wulf Fw-190 fighter aircraft] and the Me-109s [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me-109 or Bf-109 fighter aircraft] were pretty comparable. He observed that success depended most on the pilot's ability to fight. Strait said that as the war progressed, the Axis was having difficulty in training their pilots and that toward the end of the war most were low on experience. He also noted that Allies had a large number of fighters in the sky, and the enemy was continually in a defensive position. Strait said he never encountered an exceptional enemy pilot. Strait flew 87 missions with three confirmed kills in the P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] and 35 with 10.5 confirmed kills in the Mustang [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft]. His final mission was on 17 March [Annotator's Note: 17 March 1945]. It was over five hours long and "all the way down into Leipzig, in Southern Germany," with no targets and only a few flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] bursts. Strait said the war was almost over, and he saw no use in flying any more missions.

As a commander, Donald Strait felt a responsibility to his squadron. He spent a lot of time dealing with his fighter pilots' personal welfare and their concerns about their loved ones at home. He took meals with his men, and visited their quarters at night. After he left the service he took a civilian job in aviation and became the company's general manager of 5,000 employees involved in five different unions. The company had a lot of business building components for U.S. government aircraft. Strait spent an hour or two of every day among his employees and checking their work environment. His biggest problems were with the unions; he began holding regular meetings to discuss and settle problems. When he retired, they hailed him for his efforts. He contributes his professional success to his extreme sense of responsibility for his people.

After Donald Strait came back to the United States he got married and worked in the Office of Flying Safety in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The couple fixed up an apartment where they stayed until he got out of the service six months later. He went back into the insurance business until the Air Force became a separate service branch. Strait was asked to become the operations officer of his old Observations Squadron when it became the 119th Fighter Squadron at Newark Airport. As a member of the New Jersey Air Guard, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. The Squadron moved out to McGuire Air Force Base, where it formed the 108th Tactical Fighter Wing, which was activated as part of SAC [annotator's Note: Strategic Air Command] in the Korean War. Strait worked with colleagues in the Pentagon to get F-105 fighters [Annotator's Note: Republic F-105 Thunderchief supersonic fighter-bomber] for use at his base. When the United States issued Russia the ultimatum to tear down the Berlin Wall in 1961, Strait was selected to lead the five fighter squadrons held in reserve in France.

As a manager for Republic Aviation during the Vietnam War, Donald Strait spent a month each at Taklhi and Korat, air bases in Thailand, as an observer of F-105 [Annotator's Note: Republic F-105 Thunderchief supersonic fighter-bomber] operations. He also described the work he took up after graduating from the Air War College. For 21 months he was Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air force for ROTC [Annotator's Note: Reserve Officer Training Corps], Air National Guard, Air Force Reserves and the Civil Air Patrol. As such, he made presentations to Congress and found it a great experience; it earned him the Outstanding Civilian Service Award. During his active duty in the Korean Conflict, the commander of the 9th Air Force called upon him to help conduct checkout flights for ten Yugoslavian pilots. Strait retired as Major General when he became 60 years of age on 1 April 1978. For a couple of years, he gave briefings around the country on the A-10 [Annotator's Note: Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II close air support aircraft, also known as the Warthog]. He has stayed active playing golf and attending air shows all over the United States.

Donald Strait thinks it important to study the history of the Second World War because there is so much to be learned from it. He points out the development of the 8th Air Force and all their accomplishments during the war. For a time, Strait was making presentations at a local high school, and still appears at meetings of organizations such as the Lions Club. He feels that institutions such as The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] provide the best way of presenting the information to people interested in the history of the war.