Captain Donald Harvey Froemke
Donald Harvey Froemke was born on October 15, 1912, to parents Henry Ernst Clifford Froemke and Emma G. Komm Froemke in Vancouver, Washington. The family later moved to Yakima, where Froemke attended Nob Hill Grammar School and North Yakima High School. At North Yakima, he played on the kitty ball team—an early iteration of softball—and graduated in 1931. He was a member of Nob Hill Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Froemke attended Washington State College (WSC) and majored in Forestry and Range Management. He graduated with a Bachelor's degree in 1938. Following graduation, Froemke began his career with the U.S. Forestry Service. He enlisted in the United States Army in March 1941. Army records indicated he was honorably discharged on September 1, 1942, to accept a Second Lieutenant commission on September 2, 1942. He was promoted to First Lieutenant on May 4, 1943, and departed the United States for England on September 5, 1943, in preparation for the Allied invasion of France. Assigned to the 326th Airborne Engineering Battalion (AEB) of the 101st Airborne Division, his unit stayed and trained at a manor at Basildon Park, thirty miles west of London. Froemke participated in the invasion of France and the Normandy campaign. According to his niece, Ellen Holloway, Froemke flew a glider into Normandy during Operation Overlord. The 326th suffered losses among its officer corps during the Normandy campaign, and perhaps as a result, Froemke received a promotion to Captain on July 9, 1944. The 101st returned to England on July 13, 1944, to rest and train for its next mission.
That mission was Operation Market Garden, a combined land and air offensive to create an Allied invasion route into Germany. On September 17, 1944, paratroopers from the 326th landed around Zon [Son], Holland, north of the city of Eindhoven. Froemke and the rest of the 326th Airborne Engineering Battalion landed gliders in the same area on September 18. Their task was to assist the 101st Airborne in laying and clearing landmines, repairing or destroying vital bridges, building or removing obstacles, and assisting in frontline combat when necessary. The 101st achieved most of their objectives in the first few days, and then engaged in the defense of Highway 69 “Hell’s Highway” to support British armored forces advance on the Dutch city of Arnhem. The Allies failed to capture Arnhem, and the mission turned to defending the salient around the city of Nijmegen that they had created. On October 3, the 101st Airborne moved into a defensive position in the northwest part of the salient. Their sector was flat and bounded on all sides by the Lower Rhine and Waal rivers.
In the early morning hours of October 5, German soldiers launched an assault on the salient, marking the start of the Battle of the Nijmegen Salient. The attack began with a massive artillery barrage, followed by an assault on Opheusden with infantry supported by armor. While there are varying accounts of how Froemke died, what is known is that he was killed in action at Opheudsen. The Germans overran the town, preventing the immediate recovery of his body and other Allied casualties.
As for Froemke’s body, it is unclear what happened to it after the attack on Opheusden. Doug Wilbur believed local Dutch citizens recovered his body and buried it in a local cemetery. Indeed, remains thought to be Froemke’s were recovered in 1946 by members of the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) in a cemetery near Opheusden. It appears the AGRC did not do a careful analysis of the remains with the biological and dental records the Army had for Froemke, instead using circumstantial evidence to make a positive identification. After identification, the remains were buried in a military cemetery in Belgium. Ellen Holloway reports that Virgil and Harry traveled to Europe to visit Froemke’s alleged gravesite in Holland.
The U.S. Government arranged for the return of the remains thought to be Froemke’s in 1949. On May 27, 1949, they were buried in Tahoma Cemetery in Yakima, Washington.
In 1951, a set of remains, identified as X-3325 Neuville, were recovered from the Old Opheusden civilian cemetery. The remains contained an identification bracelet with the name “DONALD H. FROEMKE”, a set of glider pilot wings, and a set of captain’s bars. Despite this, the AGRC did not believe the remains belonged to Froemke. The remains were marked as unidentifiable and buried in the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium.
X-3325 Neuville rested for decades, unidentified at the Ardennes cemetery, but the U.S. government has never given up on its work in identifying all unknown soldiers. The X-3325 Neuville remains were disinterred at some point during the 2010s and went to a Defense POW/MIA Account Agency in Nebraska for further analysis. Based upon DNA analysis and dental records, the remains were positively identified as Froemke’s. The agency publicly announced Froemke’s identification on August 24, 2022. In 2023, Froemke’s remains were flown to SeaTac airport, and a motorcade brought him first to Ellensburg and then to Yakima to be buried.Captain Donald Harvey Froemke was laid to rest for good, on Saturday, September 9, 2023 before a moderate gathering of surviving family, military cadets, and community members.