Donald Edison Hillman (August 24, 1918 – March 16, 2012) was an American World War II

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviator credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft during aerial combat. The exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ace is varied, but is usually co ...

and

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

credited with five enemy aircraft destroyed. He was also the first American pilot, in 1952, to make a deep-penetration overflight of Soviet territory for the purpose of aerial reconnaissance.Hell Hawks!: The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler's Wehrmacht
by Robert F. Dorr & Thomas D. Jones

Early life

Hillman was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

on August 24, 1918. He graduated from Broadway High School, and attended the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

for a short time before transferring to Virginia Military Academy. He then transferred to

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where he graduated with a business degree in 1939.

Military career

Hillman joined up in October 1940, and underwent his flight training with the

Army Air Corps Army Air Corps may refer to the following army aviation corps: * Army Air Corps (United Kingdom), the army aviation element of the British Army * Philippine Army Air Corps (1935–1941) * United States Army Air Corps (1926–1942), or its p ...

. In 1943, he deployed to Europe as commander of the

386th Fighter Squadron 386th may refer to: * 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, provisional United States Air Force unit assigned to United States Air Forces Central * 386th Fighter Squadron or 174th Air Refueling Squadron, unit of the Iowa Air National Guard 185th Air Refuel ...

. He flew

P-47 The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is a World War II-era fighter aircraft produced by the American company Republic Aviation from 1941 through 1945. It was a successful high-altitude fighter and it also served as the foremost American fighter-bomber ...

escort missions initially with the

Eighth Air Force The Eighth Air Force (Air Forces Strategic) is a numbered air force (NAF) of the United States Air Force's Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC). It is headquartered at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. The command serves as Air Force ...

, and then in 1944 with the Ninth Air Force. Later that year he was shot down and held as a

Stalag Luft III , partof = ''Luftwaffe'' , location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland) , image = , caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag ...

. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, he was transferred to another camp, where he managed to successfully escape, aided and accompanied by a disillusioned German officer. After the war the two became good friends. On October 15, 1952, a Boeing B-47B Stratojet piloted by then Colonel Hillman, deputy commander of the

306th Bombardment Wing The 306th Strategic Wing, previously the 306th Bombardment Wing, is an inactive United States Air Force unit. It was last assigned to the Strategic Air Command at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk and was inactivated on 1 February 1992. The wing's missio ...

, left Eielson Air Force Base in

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. It crossed over the

Arctic ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

, turned eastwards back over

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, and returned to Eielson via Provideniya. It was the United States' first deep-penetration reconnaissance mission against the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

.The Early Overflights: "Pearl Harbor Complex"
''Article by Walter J. Boyne, Air Force Magazine,'' June 2001 Hillman retired from the Air Force in 1962, taking up an Air Force liaison position with

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

in Seattle. He died on March 16, 2012, aged 93.

References

External links

Secret War with Russia
An interview with Col. Hillman at netnebraska.org
Lt. Col. Hillman
on the cover of ''Life'' magazine, December 9, 1946 {{DEFAULTSORT:Hillman, Donald E. 1918 births 2012 deaths Broadway High School (Seattle) alumni American World War II flying aces American prisoners of war in World War II Aviators from Washington (state) Military personnel from Seattle Recipients of the Air Medal Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) Recipients of the Silver Star Recipients of the Croix de Guerre (France) Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni United States Air Force officers World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Shot-down aviators