We Don’t Want Any Heroes in the Family

A fighter pilot, Danny Wilson was lost
in February 1945, when his silver Lightning
dropped back to take photos
on a mission over Austria.

Danny's last furlough home to Dallas County, Iowa,
was the spring of 1944. His picture, taken in Perry,
shows his solid jaw, broad shoulders.
Confidence, contentment.
Silver pilot's wings against the dark uniform.

In a snowy forest in the foothills of the Alps,
Wehrmacht personnel find a dead "American
flying lieutenant" in the wreckage of
his "forktailed devil."

The Wilsons had also taken snapshots of Danny
beside the '42 Plymouth with his sisters
and holding his nephew. Doris, her first baby due
in six weeks, stood behind Darlene and Danny
so her "condition" wouldn't show.


The airman who lost his life at Schwanberg, Austria,
in February of 1945, was identified by his dogtags,
which the Wehrmacht kept--Daniel S. Wilson.

When Danny began cadet training, Doris wrote,
"I just want you to know, whether you turn out
to be an ace or a grease monkey,
you'll still be a swell brother to me."

The 37th Fighter Squadron in Italy reported his P-38 lost,
his belongings were inventoried, and the flight surgeon added
to an official form, "good man--good pilot."

When he got his overseas orders, Doris wrote,
"Danny, you take darn good care of you,
and get home as soon as possible.
We don't want any heroes in the family,
just all of us home."

At Danny Wilson's first burial were four strangers:
the village inspector, the bergermeister,
the grave digger, and the Roman Catholic priest,
who held a burial ceremony for him--secretly.

His parents received a telegram in March 1943
with the news that he was MIA. But they never learned
the details of his death and burial. The daughter
born to Doris was the first family member to see,
fifty years later, his casualty records.

That fall, after the war was over,
Danny's grave was located
by a British Graves Registration Team,
through captured Germany records.

But Danny Wilson's parents received no more word
until January 1946, when the War Department reported
that it had received "evidence sufficient
to establish the fact of [his] death."

In a carton sent home with his other belongings,
was a small New Testament.
On the page with the American flag, Danny had written,
"I give everything for the country it stands for."


All five Wilson brothers served in the war--
two in the Navy, three in the Army Air Corps.
At age 21, Danny was one of the three young pilots
who never came home.