Don Edgar COLTON

Source : Arnaud Gaté & cmn97 

Parents : Sanford Philander & Alta Bryner COLTON DUNCAN

Frère : Alice, Robert Bryner & Richard

Source : cmn97 

 P-51A-1-NA Mustang

43-6054

CEMETERY TEMPORARY of  Blosville N°3508

Story of Cemetery Temporary  

Map of Normandy American Cemetery

Utahans Sanford and Alta Bryner Colton welcomed their second child, Don Edgar, to their Carbon County home on 8 August 1921. They resided in Price, Utah, a rural community roughly 120 miles from Salt Lake City. The couple had one daughter, Alice and four sons, including twins Robert and Richard. 

Sanford worked as a bookkeeper for a local automotive company. By 1926, Alta had four children under five years of age. She was a full-time mother, caring for her children and household. 

Colton was a graduate of Carbon County High School. He attended Carbon Junior College before leaving after a year. As a young adult, Colton was associate editor of the Helper Journal, a weekly Carbon County newspaper. 

Prior to his military service, Don worked as a station attendant for Redd Motor Company in Price, Utah. He was living in Salt Lake County when he registered as a 20-year old with the United States Selective Service. Three months later, he entered the United States Army Air Forces on 5 May 1942. 

Less than a year after Don’s enlistment, Sanford Colton died at age 45 in February 1943. At the time of his death, Sanford and Alta were new residents of Salt Lake City where he worked as a bookkeeper at Hill Field. 

During his military service, Colton trained at Brooks Field and Kelly Field in Texas prior to being deployed overseas in September 1943. Colton was commissioned in February 1944 First Lieutenant. He was attached to the 107th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 8th Air Force, England. 

The 107th was assigned to the 67th Observation Group, based at Membury, England in August 1942. Reconnaissance squadrons performed weather and bomb damage assessment, as well as photographic and visual missions to aid ground forces’ planning and positioning. Their work formed an essential element of World War II operations. 

The Group flew Spitfires and Bostons (Havocs) with the Royal Air Force (RAF.) The 67th trained on detachment at various stations until assigned to the Ninth Air Force for combat operations in November 1943.

 with that assignment, the Group moved from Membury to Middle Wallop, Hampshire where pilots flew adapted Mustangs over northern France. One objective was collection of information about enemy coastal defenses in preparation for Operation Neptune, the naval phase of the June 1944 Allied invasion of Normandy, France. 

The Group received a Distinguished Unit Citation (DUC) for operations along the coast of France, 15 February to 20 March1944. In that month’s action, the 67th flew at low altitude in the face of intense flak to obtain photographs that aided the invasion of the Continent. 1LT Colton was awarded the Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster in March 1944. 

On 9 May 1944, 1LT Colton was piloting a P-51A Mustang, #43-6054 during a reconnaissance mission over Berney Airfield, France, when he was shot down by enemy anti-aircraft fire. He was listed as missing in action.

 In a subsequent letter to his mother, November 1945, 1LT Colton, age 22, was confirmed as killed in the previous spring’s mission. Don Edgar Colton was survived by Alta, his mother, sister, Alice and his brother, Private David S. Colton, Camp Lee, Virginia. 

Posthumously, 1LT Don Edgar Colton was awarded the Purple Heart and the Silver Star, February 1945.

He was memorialized at Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial Colleville-sur-Mer, Departement du Calvados, Basse-Normandie, France. 

By: drbaker50520

Source : PEB

Source : PEB 

Source : cmn97 

Source : cmn97 

Source : cmn97 

Source : Ancestry

Source : Ancestry

Source : Ancestry

Brother's

Don E

Robert Bryner COLTON

Source : Oliver Shirley  

Parents : Sanford Philander & Alta Bryner COLTON DUNCAN

Siblings : Alice, Don E  & Richard

KOREA, VIETNAM

US Navy