Donald Melvin Allen

Donald Melvin Allen was born in Portland, Oregon, on February 25, 1925. He was baptized in the Lutheran Church on June 21, 1925. His mother, Ruby Mae Steele, and his father, George Leroy Allen, met in Shelby, Montana, in 1910, where George worked as a telegrapher at the train station. Allen had two older siblings: George Jr., born in 1912, and Dorothy, born in 1924. George’s parents also had three other children, Lyle and Russell, both of whom died as children due to the flu in 1918. A third boy was born in 1919, but was stillborn. By the time Allen was five years old, the Allen family had moved to Spokane, Washington. He graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in 1942 and intended to attend the University of Washington.

Allen attended Washington State College from 1941 to 1942. While attending WSC, Allen went on a field trip to the Okanogan Valley, facilitated by Dr. Leonard Wing, assistant professor of wildlife management. Allen and other students “outran and pulled down a mountain goat and photographed it wearing a W.S.C rooter’s cap, then turning it loose.” Many of Allen’s classmates from this trip also enlisted.

Allen enlisted in the United States Navy Reserves while still attending WSC, at the age of seventeen. When he turned eighteen, he transferred to the Air Corps. He took his examination in Seattle in April of 1943. According to his family, instead of returning to WSC, Allen entered the Navy Air Corps and was sent to train in Pasco, Washington. He was then sent to Monmouth College, in Monmouth, Illinois, for more training and pre-flight duty. He suffered an eye injury in Pasco, which disqualified him from pre-flight training. He then reclassified as a gunner and radio-man. He was sent to Memphis, Tennessee, for radio training and then to gunnery school in Purcell, Oklahoma. Next, he was sent to Jacksonville, Florida, where he joined a Navy Bombing Squadron and received additional training. He also received training in San Diego and Almeda, California. Newspapers surrounding his death also stated that he trained in Central and South America. He spent some time in the South Pacific as well, writing to Washington State College in January of 1945 to say that “he wouldn’t trade all the beauty of the South Pacific for that of Pullman.”

The final place Allen was sent for training was Klamath Falls, Oregon, where he trained to become a member of Dive Bombing Squadron 5. During a routine target practice on August 2, 1945, at about 9:30 in the morning, Donald’s plane, the “Navy Hell Driver,” crashed into the ground, killing Allen. His body was escorted to Spokane, Washington, by a friend. The plane crashed just outside of Dorris, California, and burst into flames when it hit the ground.

Donald Melvin Allen is buried in Greenwood Memorial Terrace in Spokane, Washington, the same cemetery as his parents and siblings.