31 May Don Courson, right waist gunner
Don Courson. right waist gunner, in 1944
I first wrote about Donald S. Courson in November of 2009, shortly after I interviewed him at his home in Ashleigh, Mississippi.
At the time, there were three members of the 306th BG’s Liberty Lady crew still alive. My Dad, bombardier Herman F. Allen, remembered almost nothing. He did know the Lady was a B-17, but that’s about it. Herman died in 2011.
Co-pilot Merle P. Brown remembered a lot when I visited him in Minnesota in September 2009. We talked several times until his death in 2014.
But it was Don Courson who made the Liberty Lady’s final day come alive. Sadly, our last living crew member passed away in January. At his funeral, Don’s nephew read selected passages from my book highlighting the courage of the crew’s final mission and their crash landing.
photo from the wartime collection of Donald S. Courson
On March 6, 1944, over Berlin:
“Gunner Don Courson remembered seeing planes as far as the eye could see, many on fire. Parachutes were everywhere. Planes were going down, but the other crews had to focus on how to keep theirs up. There were lots of prayers.”
So now, they’re all up there, together again, trading stories and remembering the day that “a tired and thankful crew looked back on the Liberty Lady as the flames licked their chops around her gallant body.”
The crew of the Liberty Lady shortly after their forced landing in Sweden. Don Courson on the back row to the left.
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