Robert W. McDonald was born in Carlinville, Illinois in January 1924. His father was born when Abraham Lincoln [Annotator's Note: Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, 1861-1865] was president. His mother was the youngest daughter in a German family. Their custom was that the youngest daughter stayed home to take care of the family until the parents died. She and his father married when he was 70, and she was 25 years younger than him. McDonald was born on his family's kitchen table. He has a younger brother. They attended public schools. McDonald had a nice childhood. His maternal grandfather came to the US from Germany by himself. He worked in farming and acquired enough money to return to Germany and marry. He and his wife then came back to the US. They made their own clothing and raised their own food, only buying sugar and coffee. When he died, he had a nice home in a good neighborhood, owned four farms, and had money in the bank. This was all before World War 1. The money was a fortune then. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks McDonald if he remembers the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941.] He was a freshman at the University of Illinois [Annotator's Note: unable to identify which campus]. He thought it was terrible. He listened to Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] on the radio [Annotator's Note: Day of Infamy Speech; President Franklin D. Roosevelt to a Joint Session of the United States Congress, 8 December 1941] and heard Congress declare war. Germany declared war on the United States. The country had been trying to avoid the war. McDonald tried to enlist in the Air Force, the Navy, and the Coast Guard, but was not accepted due to being nearsighted. His father told him to wait to be drafted. He got his notice a few weeks later to get his physical. There were several hundred of them there who were all naked. The doctor just walked past them and told them they passed. A week later they had to go downtown to a building where they got an excellent physical. It was the best one he had in his life. He was sworn into the Army that day. He had a week to go home, and then reported to Camp Grant [Annotator's Note: near Rockford, Illinois] to be inducted. He had a year of chemistry in college, and was put into the chemical warfare section. He then took a train to Sheppard Field [Annotator's Note: now Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita County, Texas]. Half of the barracks were from the Old South [Annotator's Note: name for the southern states of the US before the American Civil War, 1861 to 1865] and the other half were Yankees [Annotator's Note: nickname for people from the northern states of the US]. They refought the Civil War every night. He had KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol or kitchen police] every once in a while, which is the worst detail you can have in the Army. They cleaned coffee mugs with salt. He was dead tired when that day ended. After six weeks, he took a train to Rome, New York. While in Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: Saint Louis, Missouri], he called his parents and told them he was there, and they visited a for a couple of hours. In Rome, he worked for a few weeks before going to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey] for chemical warfare school.

Robert W. McDonald went to Fort Dix [Annotator's Note: now Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Trenton, New Jersey] for chemical warfare school which was intense. They learned how to spread chemicals, and wore insulated suits to do it. They would get off at noon on Saturday, and would then go into Manhattan [Annotator's Note: Manhattan is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York]. They had a great time from noon Saturday until Sunday night. They could go to the Stage Door Canteen [Annotator's Note: in the Broadway theatre district of New York, New York] any time of day or night to get something to eat. He first saw the Duke and Duchess of Windsor [Annotator's Note: former King-Emperor Edward VIII and Wallis, Duchess of Windsor, born Bessie Wallis Warfield, known as Wallis Simpson] there. They were living with friends in the country during World War 2. McDonald went to the top of the Empire State Building. It was closed the next week for the duration of the war. He went to the foot of the Statue of Liberty and climbed up it to the tip of the torch. A week later, they closed that too. He was lucky. He went to the USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations, Incorporated] who would give them a place to stay. A Jewish organization had a place in the Bronx [Annotator's Note: the Bronx is one of the five boroughs in New York, New York] where they could stay for free. He signed up to eat Sunday dinner at the New York City Athletic Club in Manhattan. He had dinner with nine other servicemen. They had roast duck. The waiters had the fanciest uniforms he had ever seen. They treated them nicely. He got tickets to see the Bell Telephone Hour. He saw Frank Sinatra [Annotator's Note: Francis Albert Sinatra, American singer, actor, producer] with the Harry James Orchestra. He remained there for a couple of months, and then was sent to Syracuse, New York to the 70th Replacement Depot [Annotator's Note: of the US Army Air Forces]. If planes crashed, they would take the salvageable parts out. One guy was a propellor specialist. McDonald was the bugler there and performed reveille [Annotator's Note: reveille is a signal sounded on a bugle or drum to wake military personnel]. He had played trumpet in high school and the bugle in the Boy Scouts [Annotator's Note: Boy Scouts of America, scouting and youth organization founded in 1910]. He still plays [Annotator's Note: at the time of this interview]. He played at an auction where a glass of Steve McQueen's [Annotator's Note: Terrence Stephen McQueen, American actor] auctioned for 6,000 dollars. It was an auction for the Wounded Warriors [Annotator's Note: Wounded Warrior Project, a charity and veterans service organization]. One guy paid 30,000 dollars for a dog to be trained as a companion dog. McDonald went overseas in October 1943.

Robert W. McDonald [Annotator's Note: serving in the US Army Air Forces] went overseas in October 1943 on the Argentina [Annotator's Note: the SS Argentina (1929)] out of New York Harbor [Annotator's Note: in New York, New York]. They thought they were going to North Africa where the fighting was going on at the time. They spent the first 24 hours on deck. They were packed in like sardines. It was a huge convoy. The battleship Arkansas [Annotator's Note: USS Arkansas (BB-33)] was in the center. His ship was about the fourth row in from the right flank. You could see the convoy going over the horizon. The first night there were luminescent jelly fish in the ocean, it was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. The men were fed twice a day. They would spend 24 hours outside and then 24 hours inside the ship. He was in the grand ballroom. The bunks were 14 tiers high. Everything was cold, icy ocean water. They did not shave or bathe. The second or third day they were told they were going to England. If you just do what they tell you, you get along a lot better than bucking the system. Every foot of the ocean was covered by the submarine-chasing destroyers. The destroyers had to refuel, and they sat dead still one whole day. They knew the wolfpacks [Annotator's Note: a convoy tactic used by submarines, primarily the Germans; coordinated attacks] were out there. At that time, all the bases along the East Coast had aircraft flying to protect from submarines. When they got off the coast of Northern Ireland, the Royal Air Force provided air cover. They were glad to see them. They sailed down to Liverpool, England where they saw their first glimpses of the war. There were boats sunken there. They got off and got on a train to Goxhill [Annotator's Note: Goxhill, England]. They went to Great Grimsby [Annotator's Note: Great Grimsby, England] fishing port. A guy from Baltimore, Maryland and McDonald went into town. A man who owned a fishing factory gave them some beer and smoked herring. His outfit was broken up. McDonald was still in chemical warfare and was sent to Air Force [Annotator's Note: 8th Air Force] personnel depot. They did not know what to do with him there in Stone, England. They had to pull KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen patrol, or kitchen police] every day.

Robert W. McDonald [Annotator's Note: serving in the US Eighth Air Force] pulled detail one night as the kitchen ran 24 hours a day. Bomber crews would fly bombers from the States and be shipped down to his base to be oriented before shipping out to an operational base. He was at a building with French officers. Some cooks had been shipped out and men were needed to replace them. Cooks had it pretty good in the Army, so McDonald volunteered to be a cook. They were feeding transient flying officers. Before the invasion [Annotator's Note: D-Day; the Allied invasion of Normandy, France on 6 June 1944], a lot of them had been glider pilots. They knew something was going on because there were more and more arriving. Glider pilots were only used for one thing – they took in paratroopers and infantry. The gliders were a big disaster. They were not built strongly enough and were overloaded. Many disintegrated upon landing. McDonald was on the night shift one night and went to bed around six o'clock in the morning. He woke up and was told the invasion had started. He knew something was up when he had walked to his barracks because it seemed like every airplane in the world was in the sky. The bomber crews would come in. At first, they had to fly 25 missions to go back to the United States. They would come back through his base. Only about ten percent came back. The attrition rate was very high.

The war in Germany ended and Robert W. McDonald's operation [Annotator's Note: in the 8th Air Force] was transferred to France [Annotator’s Note: from England]. He was stationed at Château-Thierry [Annotator's Note: Château-Thierry, France]. He was soon moved to Germany, and arrived first to Feldbruck [Annotator's Note: Fürstenfeldbruck, Germany]. It was a permanent Luftwaffe [Annotator's Note: German Air Force] base. The airfield had been bombed so badly that no airplanes could fly in or out. There were mounds of destroyed German aircraft. His unit was processing people leaving and coming in. When he traveled from France, he went through Karlsruhe [Annotator's Note: Karlsruhe, Germany]. There was not a building there that did not have a hole in it. The Germans were very friendly. It was the middle of winter, and it was cold as hell. The people were all hungry. They would trade rations for Schnapps [Annotator's Note: type of alcoholic beverage]. They stayed in the best hotel in town. The German installation at Feldbruck [Annotator's Note: Fürstenfeldburck Air Base] was well-built. McDonald was the lead cook in the officers’ mess. The officers took good care of themselves. 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 come home in February 1946. He did not reenlist. He traveled by Forty and Eight [Annotator's Note: refers to the size of the boxcar – 40 standing men or eight standing horses could fit inside one of them] which were the same cars they used to haul people to concentration camps. They had a pot-bellied stove to keep warm. They spent a whole day going along the Rhine River. The old castles were quite a sight. They went to Antwerp [Annotator's Note: Antwerp, Belgium] where he got on a ship to New York Harbor [Annotator's Note: in New York, New York]. Boats and bands greeted them. He then took a train to Camp Grant [Annotator's Note: near Rockford, Illinois]. The trains would stop at mess halls so they could eat. He got to Camp Grant at the end of February [Annotator's Note: February 1946], and he was discharged. He took a train home and was given ten dollars.

There was no way to avoid the war. Japan attacked a US territory [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. The story is that Roosevelt [Annotator's Note: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States] knew of the attack. Robert W. McDonald thinks it was worse than he thought it would be. An American passenger ship was sunk too. McDonald would not want to go through the experience again. He got a job as a cook at a hospital for about a year and figured there was not much of a future. He went to see a friend who was teaching chemistry. McDonald went to school at Blackburn College [Annotator's Note: in Carlinville, Illinois]. The students were the janitors, electricians, and plumbers for 15 hours a week to pay for going to school there. He used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] and then went to law school at the University of Illinois [Annotator's Note: unable to identify which campus]. He practiced law for a while. A man made him an offer to be the manager of a discount store and he made more money there. He had two children by then. He worked there for about ten years and bought the business. It was a good business. He found out his wife had lung cancer, so he quit and took care of her.