Donald Robert Duchene was born February 10, 1924 in St. Paul, Ramsey County Minnesota to Arthur and Edith Larson Duchene. His father was a Glazier and they owned their own home. There were four children in the family. Older brother Arthur, Jr. and two younger sisters Dorothy and Marion. His mother died in 1955 and his father in 1963. Both of his parents are buried in Ft. Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis, MN, his father had served in the Army in WWI.

He had enlisted in the Army Air Forces on June 16, 1942 at Ft. Snelling in MN and served during World War II. He had the rank of Staff Sergeant and was a Tail Gunner. Service number was 17080319. Served with 98th Bomber Group, Heavy, 344th Bomber Squadron.

Duchene was reported missing and ultimately declared dead on August 1, 1943. He was on the crew of the Consolidated B-24D Liberator #41-24198 the "The Vulgar Virgin" flown by Capt Wallace C. Taylor of the USAAF’s 98th Bomb Group "Pyramiders", 344th Bomb Squadron on a bombing mission to Ploesti, Rumania.

"The Vulgar Virgin" was one of the aircraft lost in the low-level raid to Ploesti on August 1, 1943. On that day there were 47 Liberators that took off on a raid against the Ploesti’s oil refineries in Romania. Only 21 of them returned safely. “The Vulgar Virgin”, flying as the lead aircraft in the "E" Section of the 98th's formation, took a direct hit in the nose section by flak over the target and burst into flames. Only the pilot survived with serious burns. The aircraft is believed to have crashed at Tatarani South of Ploesti.

Operation TIDAL WAVE. B24D Liberators attack the oil refineries at Ploesti, Romania. The bombers flew low to avoid radar detection and dropped time delayed bombs. Out of the 177 B-24s that took part in the raid 167 managed to attack their targets. 57 B-24s were lost in total: 54 over Ploesti and 3 in the sea.

Five bomb groups were involved from the 8th and 9th Air Forces: the 44th, 93rd, 389th from the 8th and the 98th and 376th of the 9th.

Five Medals of Honor were awarded for the Ploesti raid. All five groups that took part received Presidential Unit Citations.

Donald R Duchene is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing at Florence American Cemetery, Florence, Italy. This is an American Battle Monuments Commission location.

COMMENDATIONS

★ Distinguished Flying Cross

★ Air Medal

★ Purple Heart

Crew of 10

9 KIA 1 POW related to the #41-24198 THE VULGAR VIRGIN incident on August 1, 1943.

Find A Grave Memorial of Crew:

KIA/MIA:

Co Pilot: Fl. Of. Paul W. Packer, ID T-000348

Bombardier: 1/Lt. Robert B. Austin , NY O-729696

Navigator: 1Lt. Jack K. Wood , OK O-664934

Tail Gunner: S/Sgt. Donald R. Duchene , MN 17080319

Waist Gunner: S/Sgt. Louis Kaiser , MD 13043772

Engineer: T/Sgt. Gerald E. Rabb., FL 20434718

Gunner: S/Sgt. Ralph M. Robins, CT 11040984

Radio Op: T/Sgt. Alfred F. Turgeon, MA 31003323

Tail Gunner: Sgt. Arthur B. Van Kleeck , NY 12037352

POW:

Pilot: Capt Wallace C. Taylor, Jr., CA 1916-1978

This story is part of the Stories Behind the Stars project https://www.storiesbehindthestars.org/. This is a national effort of volunteers to write the stories of all 400,000+ of the US WWII fallen here on Fold3. Can you help write these stories? Related to this, there will be a smart phone app that will allow people to visit any war memorial or cemetery, scan the fallen's name and read his/her story.

Sources:

www.ancestry.com

www.findagrave.com

www.americanairmuseum.com