Five Sioux Cityans were among the men commissioned second lieutenants and who were graduated recently as 11 southwest advanced flying schools for pilots of the A.A.F. training command.
The Sioux Cityans, their addresses and the field where they were trained are Robert W. Essig, 2350 Nash Street, Ellington field, Texas; Orville K. Goodier, 3511 Garretson Avenue, Blackland; Harry L. McGraw, 1845 S. Cedar Street, Lubbockfield, Texas; Donald W. Schoen, 2359 Decotah Street, Fosterfield, Texas and Lloyd E. Sease, 406 S. Helen Street, Moorefield, Texas.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, April 18, 1944 (photo included)
IN UNIFORM
Second Lt. Donald W. Schoen, son of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Schoen, 2359 Dacotah street, who is an Eighth air force P-51 Mustang pilot, has been awarded the air medal and one oak leaf cluster “for meritorious achievement while serving as a fighter pilot during an extended period of aerial combat over Germany and German occupied continental Europe.” A cluster is equivalent to the medal with which is worn. Lt. Schoen is a Central high school graduate and entered the army air forces in November, 1942.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, February 18, 1945
IN UNIFORM
Lt. Donald W. Schoen, son of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Schoen, 2459 Dacotah street, is a pilot with a P-51 Mustang fighter group in England, and is using the new “G” suit which prevents blackouts, or unconsciousness, and gray outs which is loss of sight ordinarily resulting from the effects of centrifugal force on the blood flow during high speed maneuvers. Lt. Schoen was graduated from Central high school in 1940.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, February 20, 1945
Lt. Donald Schoen, Sioux City, Downs 2 German Planes
With the United States Eighth Air Force.—(AP)—Eighth air force airmen reported excellent results in the bombing of railyards in the Nuernberg area Friday.
Five German planes were shot up by a group of Mustangs before they could take off from a field near Kitzingen.
“While we raked the drome we could see bombs falling from Fortresses at Kitzingen yards two miles away,” said Lt. Donald Schoen of Sioux City, who destroyed two planes. “We swept across the field 20 feet from the ground at better than 350 miles an hour. Flak was intense.”
Lt. Schoen, 22, is the son of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Schoen, 2359 Dacotah street. He enlisted in November, 1942, and has been overseas since last September. He received his training at Texas air fields.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, February 24, 1945
SIOUX CITY FLIER DROPS MESSAGE TO RED SOLDIERS
Lieut. Schoen in News Second Tim in Less Than Week
A United States Eighth Air Force Station, Eng.—(AP)—Two Mustang pilots who escorted American heavy bombers over Berlin Monday flew on a few miles farther and dropped a message by parachute to Russian troops on the eastern front.
The pilots were Capt. Maurice Morrison, Kalamazoo, Mich., and his wingman, Lt. Donald Schoen, 2359 Dacotah avenue, Sioux City, Ia.
The message was written in Russian by Cpl. Paul Goldenstein of New York, a ground crewman who formerly lived at Kishinev.
It said:
“To a Russian soldier:
“Berlin is getting nearer, comrades. It’s kind of battered after attacks like those today by our Eighth air force, but it’s still the home of those damn’ nazis. So as you fight on closer and closer, remember those planes in the sky with the white star are with you every rugged inch of the way to total victory.
“An American soldier.”
Lt. Schoen, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Schoen, 2359 Dacotah street, was in the war news Monday for the second time in less than a week. Last Friday while on a Mustang bombing and strafing mission he shot up two German planes before they could take off from a field near Kitzingen, Germany. Lt. Schoen, who has been overseas since last September, is 22 years old.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, February 27, 1945
Lt. Donald W. Schoen, son of Mr. and Mrs. John W. Schoen, 2359 Dacotah avenue, is a member of the Eighth air force 353d fighter group, which recently raised its total of enemy aircraft destroyed above the 500 mark, when pilots of the unit accounted for 65 German planes in three missions over Europe. Lt. Schoen, a pilot with the veteran P-51 Mustang group commanded by Col. Ben Rimerman of Omaha, is credited with the destruction of two German planes on the ground. He wears the air medal with two oak leaf clusters. He was graduated from Central high school in 1940, and has been serving with the 353d since September, 1944.
Source: The Sioux City Journal, April 3, 1945
