Lieutenant WALTER DONALDSON NETHERTON O-765051

Lieutenant WALTER DONALDSON NETHERTON O765051 officer number (18140218, enlisted Number) Army Air Forces. Brother of BEN EDGAR NETHERTON, Private First Class ORVILLE ANDREW NETHERTON and Captain GROVER TILLMAN NETHERTON. Husband of Gladys Aileen Netherton, 3255 Jackson St., Shreveport, and son of Mr. and Mrs. Grover T. Netherton, 3302 West College St. He was born November 17, 1916, and attended Fair Park High and Centenary College. He was a glass worker prior to entering the Army Air corp on September 23, 1942, at Barksdale Field, at the age of 25. He served at Santa Ana Army Air Base, California, as a cadet. Lieutenant Netherton received his air training at Thunderbird Field No. 2, Phoenix, Arizona, Marana Army Air Base, Tucson, Arizona, La Junta Army Air Field, La Junta, Col., Hobbs, New Mexico, where he became a B-17 pilot, and Lincoln Army Air Base, Lincoln, Nebraska. He completed crew training at Ardmore Army Air Base Oklahoma, and staged at Kearney, Nebraska, embarking July 11, 1944, to serve in Italy with the 15th Air Force as a B-17 pilot in the 483rd Bomb Group 815th Bomb Squadron. Stationed at San Sevario, he completed 11 combat missions over Ploesti, the Hermann Goering Tank Works, Wiener Neustadt, the Iron Gates, Toulon, Brou Yugo, and Savona, taking part in the Campaigns of the Balkan Air Combat, the PO Valley, the Rhineland, the North Apennines, and Southern France. Lieutenant Netherton lost his life in combat in North Italy on Army Air Base August 15, 1944,  at the age of 27. He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart Medal (PHM), presented to his wife on December 25, 1944, at Shreveport, Louisiana.

 

 

Source:

1- THE FIGHTING MEN OF LOUISIANA – LOUISIANA HISTORICAL INSTITUTE – 1946