Lieutenant Don Winston Lusk Jr.

  2. Aggies to Recall
  3. World War II
  4. Lieutenant Don Winston Lusk Jr.

Don Winston Lusk Jr. was born and raised in Silver City NM, the only son and youngest child of his parents Don and Edith Lusk. His father, Don Sr. was the editor of the Silver City Enterprise. Don grew up around the newspaper industry and worked throughout his life in various aspects of the business. After graduation from Silver City HS he enrolled at the Teachers College in Silver City and then in the fall of 1938 transferred to NMAMC. While at NMAMC he was the sports editor for the Round Up. He remained in school until the spring semester of 1941 when he joined the USAAF. He was commissioned in July 1942 as a Bombardier and assigned as a member of a B-17 crew piloted by Lt. James Clark. The crew and plane proceeded to Biggs Air Filed in El Paso and Alamogordo Field where they received their combat training as part of the 358th Bomb Squadron, 303rd Bomb group. In October 1942 the group deployed to Molesworth, England. Lt Lusk’s crew flew their first combat mission in November 1942 in a raid on submarine pens at St Nazairre, France. Missions to Rouen, France and Wilhelmshaven, Germany followed. On January 3, 1943, the group flew Mission #9, another strike against St Nazairre. 

Lieutenant Don Winston Lusk Jr.
The seven hour flight to and from took the aircraft across the southern part of France which was still in German hands. Fighter aircraft met the 26 plane flight as soon as it made land fall and continued to attack their formations for the next 2 hours. As the flight neared St Nazairre it was met by an intense wall of flak. Flying at 20,000 feet over the target, Lt Lusk’s aircraft , B-17 #41-24527 “Leapin Liz” was struck in the right wing causing both engines on that side of the aircraft to go up in flames. The aircraft was last seen attempting to ditch in the Bay of Biscay approximately 5 miles off shore from St Nazairre. The crew was initially reported as missing in action until word came to confirm that no crew members survived. The Germans recovered two bodies, one of those being Lt Lusk, and these were reported to the Allies and buried in unmarked graves in France. After the war, Lt Lusk was reinterred at the Epinal American Cemetery in France. Lt Don Winston Lusk Jr. was 21 years of age.