Family Tree Maker's Genealogy Site: Genealogy Report: Ancestors of Clark Jay Wilson

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Ancestors of Clark Jay Wilson

Generation No. 2

      2. Donald Raymond Wilson, born 12 October 1921 in Portland, Oregon. He was the son of 4. George Marion Wilson and 5. Estella Florence Beckwith. He married 3. Betty Clark 9 September 1944 in Los Angeles, California.

      3. Betty Clark, born 17 October 1921 in Melville, Saskatchewan Canada. She was the daughter of 6. Stanley Clark and 7. Isabel Bertha Stickman.

Notes for Donald Raymond Wilson:
Donald R. Wilson was raised in Portland, Oregon. As a young boy he was stricken with rheumatic fever and was bead-ridden for about one year. He played football and graduated from Franklin High School in 1940. He sang solo in the Staub Memorial Congregational Church. Don attended Pacific University on a music scholarship. He also attended Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.
In 1942 Don entered U.S. Navy Aviation Cadet training and became a Marine Corps Officer and Aviator. Don, while stationed at El Toro MCAS, California, met Betty Clark in Los Angeles, California. She at the time was working for TWA airlines in reservations. They married after a short courtship and lived initially in Laguna Beach, California before Don was shipped overseas to war. While Don was overseas, Betty returned to her home town of Quincy, Illinois to live with her parents .
Don flew F-4U Corsair fighter planes in combat in the Pacific Theater during World War II. He was assigned to Marine Fighter Squadron VMF -121 stationed on Peleiu, in the Palau islands. In July of 1945, Don was shot down and crash landed just off a reef in the ocean nearf Koror, Babelthuap in the Palau Islands. He was rescued by a landing craft after about four hours in the water.
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Brief Historical Background of Air War over Palau

During 1944-45, US forces (Navy, Army Air Corps and Marines) made repeated air raids over the Palau Islands (approximately 500 miles north of the equator and 600 miles south and east of the Philippines). The first series of attacks occurred in the spring of 1944 in the form of aircraft carrier task force strikes (Operation DESECRATE ONE) to prevent the Japanese Army and Navy in Palau from providing flanking air support against MacArthur's invasion of Hollandia/northern New Guinea. During the summer of 1944, the second series occurred in the form of both carrier task force strikes (Operation SNAPSHOT, in which former President George Bush participated) and Army Air Corps B-24 raids (13th AAF and 5th AAF). The purpose of these raids was twofold: a) to prevent Japanese aircraft from flanking MacArthur's invasions of northern New Guinea and the Philippines and b) to soften up Peleliu (an island with a large Japanese air field in southern Palau), scheduled for invasion by 1st Marine Division on September 15, 1944 (Operation STALEMATE).

Although the rest of Palau was bypassed after the Peleliu invasion as the war proceeded toward the homeland of Japan, the requirement for ongoing US air coverage over Palau was essential to prevent further aggression from the remaining 20,000 Japanese troops stationed throughout the northern Palau islands. As a result, a third series of air actions occurred during and after the invasion of Peleliu, by both the US Marines Corsair fighters (VMF 114, 122, 121 from the captured Peleliu airfield) and the Army Air Corps B-24 bombers (7th AAF from a new airfield on nearby Angaur built to support the Philippines invasion). Each provided independent air support/suppression against Japanese ground forces throughout Palau until the war ended. In the face of the war moving elsewhere, the daily air battles fought over Palau were unaccountably fierce, on the part of both sides, turning into a struggle of attrition with both sides sustaining lethal casualties up to the last day of the war.

Palau, because of its strategic location (between the Mariana Islands and the Philippines) and because of its deep-water harbors, was the regional headquarters for the occupying Japanese military. Accordingly, it was heavily defended, both in numbers of troops (~35,000), airfields (3) and antiaircraft sites (many). In the face of some of the heaviest Japanese antiaircraft fire anywhere in the entire Pacific war and with the large number of US air strikes, it was inevitable that American planes would be shot down and they were. Because the Palaus have a barrier reef around the islands, many of the planes fell onto the islands or into waters.

Even though the invasion of Peleliu turned out to be the third bloodiest battle fought in the Pacific, the several naval, ground and air campaigns involving Palau are generally treated as a historical footnote of little interest, compared to more well-recognized Pacific battles such as Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinowa. But the numbers of Americans (with their planes) that were lost in the Palau area are not insignificant. At least two books have been published, describing the Japanese ships sunk by US Navy air actions in the Palaus.

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Don began working for The Aetna Life Insurance Company after the war in Los Angeles, California. He was later transferred by The Aetna to Portland, Oregon. Don and his wife, Betty lived with Don's parents in Portland until they could buy their first home in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Don's job with The Aetna moved him and his family to Salt Lake City, Utah in 1948. Don was again transferred to Denver, Colorado in 1950. Don continued flying in the Marine Corps Reserve in Salt Lake City and Denver Colorado. In 1951 Don was transferred to the Los Angeles Aetna office. Don again joined a Marine Corps reserve unit at Los Alomitos Naval Air Station, California and served there as a "weeked warrior" until retiring from the Reserve in 1961. Don's final transfer assignment with the Aetna was with the San Francisco office in 1976. Don retired from The Aetna in 1978 as a Senior Accounts Executive for the Group and Pension Department. Don and his wife, Betty, after retirement moved to Bear Valley Springs, California where he built, built mostly by himself, a "Justis" solid cedar home. In May of 1989 Don and his wife Betty moved to their second retirement home on a private golf course in Salem Town, Salem, Oregon.
Don is a 32nd Degree Scottish Rite Mason. He was president of the Anaheim, California Kiwanis Club, YMCA Indian Guides dad leader, camp councilor at the YMCA Camp Osceola, California in 1955. He was a Little League coach in Anaheim, California and was the Dad Advisor to the Yorba Linda, California chapter Order of DeMolay 1964-1965. He was the Yorba Linda, California Country Club Golf President's Cup Champion in 1963. Don the sportsman enjoys and excels in golf, tennis, skiing and fishing.
Residents include: Portland, Oregon 1921 to 1942... Los Angeles, California 1945 to 1946... Portland, Oregon 1946... Lake Oswego, Oregon 1946 to 1948...Salt Lake City, Utah 1948 to 1950... Denver, Colorado 1950 to 1951... Pasedena, California 1952 to 1954... Anaheim, California 1954 to 1961... Yorba Linda, California 1961 to 1971... Pasedena, California 1971 to 1976... Tiberon, California 1976 to 1978... Bear Valley Springs, California 1978 to 1989... Salem, Oregon 1989 to present.

Children of Donald Wilson and Betty Clark are:

1	i.	Clark Jay Wilson, born 11 December 1946 in Portland, Oregon; married (1) Martha Claire Curtis 3 August 1968 in Fullerton, California; married (2) Marlus Kay Hood 25 August 1997 in Laguna Beach, California.
	ii.	Becky Ann Wilson, born 15 May 1949 in Salt Lake City, Utah; married (1) John R. Bowker 29 June 1969 in Anaheim, California; married (2) Howard Thaler 1 March 1972 in Tamalas Bay, California.
	iii.	Janet Lee Wilson, born 19 July 1952 in Denver, Colorado; married (1) Allen Ekstrom 10 May 1969 in Orange County California; married (2) Steven Cashion 18 October 1980 in Valencia, California; born 10 December 1952 in Hollywood, California.

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