OBIT: Donald BERKEY, Lt., 1943, Boswell, Somerset County, PA 

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Meyersdale Library.
Transcribed and proofread by: Richard Boyer.

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DONALD BERKEY

Lt. Donald Berkey Killed on Bombing Mission to Berlin

Parents of Navigator of Flying Fortress Receive Dread News - Victim Was Former 
Salisbury Teacher

  Lt. Donald W. Berkey, who was principal of the West Salisbury School for three 
terms before he began his military career, was reported missing in action after 
a bombing raid on Berlin, Germany, last Oct. 8th.
  Nothing further was heard about his fate until last Friday evening when his 
parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry F. Berkey of Boswell, received the dread news, 
conveyed by telegram from the War Department, that he was killed while serving 
as the navigator of a flying fortress which helped blast the U-boat base at 
Bremen, then sped on to the German capital, where it was one of two American 
"forts" shot down.
  The last letter received from him by his parents arrived at Boswell Oct. 8, 
the same day on which he was first reported missing in action.  It was dated 
Sept. 27, and stated that he was at that time well and happy and expected to 
return home soon.
  He was 28 years old and was a graduate of the Boswell High School, Indiana 
State Teachers College and Duke University, and enlisted in the U.S. Air Corps, 
in March 1941.
  On July 28 last, soon after his arrival overseas, he took part in a bombing 
raid on Kassel, Germany, when the craft he was navigating was struck and 
crippled by flak at an altitude of 20,000 feet, and 200 miles inside Germany, 
but the crippled bomber, pursued by German fighters, managed to get back across 
the English channel with the loss of but one man.
  He is survived, besides his parents, by two brothers in the armed forces - 
Staff Sgt. John Berkey somewhere in the South Pacific, and Pvt. Willard Berkey 
in the Marine Corps at New River, N.C. - also by one brother, Robert, and one 
sister, Sarah, at home, and one married sister, Mrs. Charles O'Conner of Jenner 
Township, whose husband is in the army in North Africa.  Lt. Berkey was a nephew 
of Attorney Daryle Heckman of Somerset.

Meyersdale Republican, November 18, 1943