The Iowa Sailor Who Survived the Sinking of the USS Yorktown

On this episode of Our American Stories, listener and regular contributor Joy Neal Kidney, from Des Moines, Iowa, shares the story of her uncle, Donald Wilson, a man she knew simply as “Uncle Don,” the quiet fisherman from Washington State who sent home pictures of himself holding salmon.

But behind those snapshots was a story few would have guessed. Donald Wilson grew up in small-town Iowa and joined the Navy during the Great Depression. Serving aboard the USS Yorktown throughout its life, including during the pivotal Battle of Midway.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Havive and this is our American Stories,
and we tell stories about everything here on this show,
including your story. Send them to our American Stories dot com.
There's some of our favorites. And today we have one
of our regular contributors, joy neil Kidney, and she's about
to share her uncle's story. This piece is titled Donald Wilson,

(00:33):
The Humble Hero.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Most of the heroes among us are just ordinary people,
like my uncle Don. I knew him as Mom's brother
who lived way out in Washington State and who liked fishing.
When I was a kid growing up on an Iowa farm.
The best part of getting a fat letter from Aunt
Rose was a picture of Uncle Don with a big salmon.

(00:58):
Mom's older brother had been a commercial fisherman. Even when
he later took a job with the Washington Department of Transportation,
he still headed out with his boat on willop A
Bay every chance he got, so every fishing season we
get snapshots of him with a huge fish hanging from
one hand and a fishing pole in the other, dressed

(01:21):
in faded jeans and a plaid shirt, usually a vest
with lots of pockets, sometimes a US Navy cap. Either
the uss Hancock, or the Yorktown. Although Mom rarely mentioned
the war World War Two, she told us that her
brother Don, who grew up in the small town of Dexter, Iowa,

(01:44):
had been a sailor on the famous Yorktown, the one
lost during a big battle in the Pacific Ocean, and
that he had had to tread water for an hour
before being rescued. Every few years Uncle Down and at
Rose would drive back to Iowa to visit. I was
unaware of all the other combat he'd survived, all the

(02:06):
heartache he'd been through, all the complexity of this seemingly
ordinary man. As teenagers, Cis, Gloria and I traveled by
train with Grandma to the West Coast to visit relatives,
including Don and Rose. In nineteen sixty two. They lived
in a little house out along the Nacell River. As

(02:28):
soon as they learned we were coming, Uncle Don added
a room to their home, an indoor bathroom. Since Aunt
Rose didn't drive, they had only a pick up. One
foggy day, we joined a crowd of clam diggers and
carried our limit home to try freed clams and to
make clam chowder. Digging them was more fun than eating

(02:52):
them for farm girls used to Iowa beef and pork.
Years later, I learned that not only had on Dawn
ben on the historic Yorktown during the Battle of Midway,
but that he'd had to abandon ship twice. He spent
an hour in the oily Pacific after Japanese bombs had
crippled the ship. The next day, the aircraft carrier was

(03:17):
listing dead in the water but still afloat. A few
dozen men reboarded the battered ship for a salvage attempt.
One of them was twenty five year old Donald Wilson.
After doing repairs all morning on a lower level of
the ship, he clambered up to the deck for something

(03:37):
to eat, and alarm blared. Don jumped up and saw
torpedoes in the water speeding right at his ship. One
slammed into them. He ran to the fantail and leaped
a second time. A nearby ship rescued him and other survivors.

(03:58):
The next morning, sailed there asleep on the deck were
nudged awake as the carrier began to sink, her battle
flags still flying. Many of them wept as they stood
at attention to witness their ship roll over. And plunge
into the ocean. Donald Wilson first joined the Navy with

(04:19):
his older brother in nineteen thirty four, during the Great Depression,
where there were no jobs for teenagers, not even for
their father. Don stayed in the Navy and in nineteen
thirty seven became a plank owner on the brand New Yorktown,
meaning he was a member of the crew when it

(04:41):
was placed in commission. I served on her her whole life,
Don later wrote of the ship. He later received a
citation signed by Admiral Chester Nimitz for being part of
that savage attempt. I'd written to uncle in Aunt Rose
for decades, but after Grandma died and getting to read

(05:05):
the family's war letters, I started a correspondence with Uncle
Jahn that lasted the rest of his life. I wanted
to make sure he had all the medals he was
entitled to. He said it in want any that he
was no hero and wasn't interested in medals, that is

(05:25):
until I learned there was one for that citation. When
he finally received it, he proudly framed all of his
medals and ribbons. Uncle Don was also a plank owner
on the USS Hancock, another aircraft carrier, the Hancock, was
in combat in nearly every major naval battle during those

(05:50):
last desperate months of the Pacific War, except when out
of her action for repairs after being attacked by a
comical All five Wilson brothers of Dallas County, Iowa served
in World War Two. The three youngest, Dale, Danny, and
Junior lost their lives, two of them in combat. Their

(06:14):
surviving family members never got over the blows of losing
these three young pilots, including their older brother Don, still
in the Navy after the war, he decided he didn't
want to make it a career. After all. He was
ready for some peace and quiet and a fishing pole.

(06:35):
No one would suspect that the ordinary man in the
snapshots with the big Fish was indeed a hero, one
with a poignant.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
History and a special thanks to joy Neil Kidney for
sharing that story. And again, if you have stories about
heroes who fought for and defended and served this great country,
send the story Touramerican Stories dot com. We'd love to
hear from you, and they are our favorites. The story

(07:07):
of Uncle Don here on our American Stories pleh habibe

(07:32):
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(07:55):
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