SOME OF IOWA’S NEW FLYERS
Twenty S. W. Iowa Flyers Get Wings
Graduated From Advanced Schools
Twenty youths from southwest Iowa, including four from Council Bluffs, were among the men who received their wings from one or another of the eleven advanced pilot schools in the central flying training command which has its headquarters at Randolph field, Texas.
Council Bluffs flyers who graduated included Donald W. Copeland, 611 Garden street from Frederick field. . . .
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Wednesday, December 08, 1943, Page 2 (photo included)
COPELAND GIVEN HIS ASSIGNMENT
Lt. Donald W. Copeland, 611 Garden street, has been assigned to the first troop carrier command after receiving his wings in the army air forces, and is now continuing his ground school and flying training at Bergstrom field, Austin, Texas. The lieutenant was graduated from Abraham Lincoln high school and later went to Iowa State college for one year. He was working as a turret lathe operator at the time he entered the army.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Thursday, January 27, 1944, Page 3
MISSING
2nd Lt. Donald W. Copeland, son of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Copeland, 419 Damon street, is reported missing off the North Carolina coast with 14 others on three C-47 transport planes. The planes were on a routine training flight, the army said in announcing the search for them as terminated.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Wednesday, July 26, 1944, Page 3 (photo included)
Lt. D. W. Copeland Called Missing
Fails to Return From Training Flight
2nd Lt. Donald W. Copeland has been officially listed as missing off the North Carolina coast by the commanding officer of the army air base at Pope field, N. C., according to an Associated Press dispatch released Tuesday.
Lt. Copeland, one of the 15 members of three C-47 transport plane crews, were said to have been on a training flight Friday night over the ocean. Since that time a continual and extensive search has been conducted by army, navy and coast guard installations but on Monday night the search was terminated and it was said the hopes of finding the men had become exhausted.
Lt. Copeland, the son of Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Copeland, 419 Damon street, has been in the army air force two years. He was graduated from Frederick field, Okla., awarded his wings and commissioned a second lieutenant the first of this year.
Since February, 1944, he has been serving as a first pilot and flight leader on a C-47 at Pope field.
A graduate of Abraham Lincoln high school in 1939, he attended college at Ames in 1940 and was employed in an airplane factory in California prior to entering the army air force.
Source: The Council Bluffs Nonpareil, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Thursday, July 27, 1944, Page 6
