Donald Young

Lieutenant, Engineering Officer

Don  "was caustic at times, mirthful most of the time, and a brilliant engineer all of the time...<He was> the officer whose engineering ingenuity--backed by his determined black gang sailors--brought our severely crippled  destroyer, struggling along on one engine room, one fire room and one screw, over 12,000 miles of dangerous open sea to the safety of a Brooklyn port...

"Because he was working in a vital industry--the distribution of natural gas--Don could have begged off military service.  Instead, he joined the Navy three months after Pearl Harbor and was posted to the hospital ship USS Pinkney.  Ironically, almost three years later, the Aaron Ward was to take survivors off the Pinkney after she was hit by kamikazes.  He later went to the USS Drayton (DD366), a 1650-ton destroyer, as chief engineering officer.  Other than a short period ashore attending training schools, he spent the entire war at sea, mostly in the South Pacific in various island campaigns and sea battles that earned him 11 battle stars.  He left the Navy as a Lt. Commander.  Don was brash and witty." -- Lloyd Boles

Don died 22 September 1999.