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PATRIOT BULLETIN
DONALD C. MORRISON
Army, WWII, Europe
Patriot, Chapter 1919
Page 8
Donald Morrison was born in Stoughton, Wisconsin in 1926 and in his early
childhood years he attended the Brick Church Grade School in Walworth County.
In March 1935, his family moved to Sharon Township and they were living on a
farm there in 1944 when Donald graduated from High School in Darien. He
wanted to go into the Navy right after high school, but didn’t pass the physical.
Donald’s father told him that if he really wanted to get into military service he
DONALD C. MORRISON
1946 AT CAMP MCCOY, WI
BEFORE HIS DISCHARGE
would have to leave the farm and take a job in town, because the draft board would not take farmers because
of their importance to the war effort. He took that advice, got a job, and immediately got drafted. When he
reported in, every third man was being taken by the Navy, but Donald was not lucky and on August 21, 1944
he was sworn into the Army, entering active duty from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He went by train to Fort Sheridan, Illinois and from there was ordered to Camp Wheeler, near Macon,
Georgia, and that was a four-day train ride. He immediately went into the 16-week Basic Training course.
But, at the end of the 14th week the training course was terminated in order to speed replacements to Europe
as a result of the Battle of the Bulge. Donald was given four-days furlough, and got to fly home. That was
the first time he had ever been on an airplane and it was a memorable trip. The thermometer was at 20 below
zero when they landed in Chicago.
2nd INFANTRY
DIVISION
“SECOND TO NONE”
SHOULDER PATCH
38th INFANTRY
REGIMENT
“ROCK OF THE
MARNE”
UNIT CREST
After the brief home leave, Donald Morrison reported in at Fort Meade, Maryland and
was sent to Camp Miles Standish in Massachusetts, from which he sailed from Boston
Harbor on January 8, 1945 on a former luxury liner, the Ile de France, which had been
converted to use as a troop carrier. The vessel arrived in Scotland on January 17, 1945
and the troops were sent across England on a day-and-a-half journey by train to
Southampton. After only an over-night there he was shipped across the English Channel
to Le Harve, France. From there he traveled across France and into Belgium by truck
convoy and finally reached his unit of assignment. It was bitterly cold and there was deep
snow on the ground when he arrived at Company K, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry
Division. He wasn’t there long. Donald says, “I had only been in Company K for just a
few days when I came down with the mumps and was sent to the hospital. In the hospital
it was found that I also had frostbitten feet. It was some time before I was sent back to
division, and I hadn’t been back more than 48 hours before I got sick again. I went on
sick call with 104 degree fever and they sent me back to the hospital. This time I had
Scarlettina and it was another three-weeks before I was over that and finally got back to
Company K, this time to stay.”
Donald Morrison was a Light Machine Gunner in Company K and he remained with
them until after the war in Europe was over. He was wounded in Germany on March 23,
1945. Company K was in the attack west of Koblenz, moving through the hills parallel to
the Rhine River, when they came under fire from a German 88mm gun. A shell
detonated close by and Donald was hit. He fell unconscious, bleeding from a wound to
the face and it appeared he also had been hit in the chest. Believing him dead, the
remaining men in his gun team picked up the machine gun and continued forward with
the company as it advanced. Later, as he slowly regained consciousness, Donald first