Donald B. Fair

Donald B N Fair was born in Rolla, Grand Forks County, North Dakota on April 7, 1921, to James George and Nellie Rowena Thompson Fair. He grew up in North Dakota and was a 19-year-old student majoring in theater at the University of North Dakota, when, shortly after Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the United States Army, on February 12, 1942. He served in the European African Middle Eastern Theater and rose to the rank of Staff Sergeant and was serving as a Platoon Sergeant in B Company, 44th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division in France and Belgium and fought at the Battle of The Bulge. In February 1945, the 6th AD stormed the Our River, bordering Luxembourg and Germany, for a frontal assault of entrenched enemy positions on the opposite side, up very steep terrain. The 44th Armored Infantry Battalion was hit with very heavy mortar and artillery fire. Staff Sergeant Fair was killed in action during the battle on February 9, 1945, along with his Platoon Leader, 1LT Russell Britton. Only three weeks prior, his brother James Fair, of the 331st Infantry Regiment, was also killed in action, in Bastogne, France.  He is buried in Grave 14551, Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Sources: Ancestry/Find a Grave