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WARREN – Friends and family gathered Friday night at the Ernie Hall Aviation Museum to honor Donald R. Freer, 92, of Howland on the 70th anniversary of the day the B-17 Flying Fortress bomber he was piloting was struck by anti-aircraft artillery. He and eight others bailed out over Berlin on Dec. 5, 1944.
Freer was the last to jump from the plane at a height of about 20,000 feet.
“I got through the first layer of clouds, and then once I got through there, I looked up and I saw my airplane coming right at me,” Freer said.
Freer also was almost hit by the fighter plane that accompanied his bomber and then by a few German planes. He finally landed in the middle of a forest of pine trees.
When Freer regained consciousness, he said it looked like Christmas. The snow-covered trees also had aluminum scattered over them, which had been used to override the Germens’ radar.
“And that’s how I got into Germany,” Freer said.
Two of Freer’s crew on the “Easy Does It” were lost after their parachutes failed to open, but Freer made it through months of imprisonment after the German civilians who found him and the crew turned them over to authorities.
A second lieutenant in the Army Air Corps 91st Bomb Group, Freer was held in Barth at Stalag Luft 1 on the Baltic Sea.
“It was something we knew we had to do, and knew the chances of getting hurt or killed,” Freer said. “It was an intense time, but I am still here.”
Daniel King, who also survived the prison camp and served as the commander of the Mahoning Valley Chapter of American ex-Prisoners of War, attended the banquet as a guest of honor with his wife of 71 years, Shirley.
The men were liberated by the Russians on May 15, 1945.
Mary Freer, Don’s wife since 1956, said the couple stays active in the POW community, but they have seen it shrink from around 100 members when they first became involved in 1985, down to five remaining. The chapter does not meet as frequently as it used to, but Canfield’s World War II Heritage Group still hosts speeches and other events the Freers enjoy attending.
Freer remained interested in aviation and technology and served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. After his release, he studied engineering at The Ohio State University, and resumed work at Packard Electric until he moved on to Rocketdyne of North American Aviation in California.
Contributing to the American effort in the space race, Freer worked on the Jupiter rockets, managed other engineers in Huntville, Ala., and supported the Apollo missions from Cape Canaveral, Fla.
“We moved around a lot but this (Howland) is home,” Mary Freer said.
Freer’s interest in aviation has influenced his family. Don’s son, Thomas Freer, serves as the vice president of the 91st Bomb Group Memorial Association and is a pilot himself.
Susan Boye, Don Freer’s daughter, married a commercial airline pilot, and their daughter, Kristen Boye, 20, is due to receive her pilot’s license after lessons at Youngtown-Warren Regional Airport. She is studying aviation in her third year at Kent State University and has a package prepared for application into the Navy’s officer training school upon graduation.