Donald Francis McDowell was born August 24, 1945, to Francis J. and Roberta McDowell. Donald was one of seven children. He attended West Deptford High School, where he was a member of the acting club, and later received his GED while in the US Navy. He enjoyed art, playing the guitar and writing songs. He also loved to play football.

McDowell enlisted in the US Navy in November 1963, where he attained the rank of Signalman Second Class (SM2). He was later assigned to Vietnam.

On December 26, 1967, McDowell was killed in action. He is buried in Beverly National Cemetery.

Among the medals he received were the Purple Heart, the National Defense Medal, the Vietnam Medal and the Gloucester County Vets Award.

Don

August 24, 1945-December 26, 1967
SM2, Navy West Deptford, NJ

Mickey McDowell, of Thorofare, NJ, did not expect the rush of emotion as he approached the podium. It was November of 1992. Mickey and a friend were in Washington, DC, to take part in the reading of the names engraved on the granite panels of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The three-day long reading was part of the tenth anniversary commemoration of the dedication of the Wall. They arrived at about 2:30 AM. The grounds of the memorial were dimly lit and reverently quiet, except for the PA system that carried the solemn drone of readers’ voices as they recited each of the 58,183 names.
Mickey’s friend, Art Montgomery, registered to read about forty of the names and received permission for Mickey to accompany him to recite just one, that of Mickey’s oldest son, Donald. They stood in line and listened. Art’s turn came and both stepped up to the microphone. When Art finished his list, he moved aside to allow Mickey space at the podium.
“I kept saying that I was going to do it but when Artie moved over, I could only get Don’s first name out. Art stepped in after a few seconds and recited ‘McDowell’ for me. I just couldn’t do it.” He pauses a moment and adds. “That memorial is unbelievable. It’s just something that tears at your heart.”
The pride and passion Mickey exhibited that morning pervade the entire McDowell family. There were four sons and three daughters, all of whom share the family values and sense of patriotism instilled by their parents, Mickey and Bobbie. All four boys wanted to be sailors. Three joined the Navy; one the Coast Guard. Photos of the four in their dress uniforms still hang on the living room wall.
Mickey’s father helped build the battleship USS New Jersey, and Mickey served on her during World War II in the Pacific. He even wrote the Navy a letter requesting that Don be assigned to the USS New Jersey, so three generations of McDowells would have been aboard the mighty warship.
Don left school in 1962 to join the Navy. His sister, Joanne Keegan of Thorofare recalls why. “He was unhappy in school and decided the Navy was the answer,” she says. “He always intended to get his diploma in the service and take some college courses. But he loved the Navy.”
Don served three tours in the waters off Vietnam and the South Pacific aboard minesweepers. He kept a map with the places and routes where his duties had taken him. Australia, the Philippines, Hawaii and other ports were circled, as were the coastal cities of South Vietnam. His mother still has a room key that Don sent her from the Hong Kong Hilton, a souvenir from a New Year’s Eve celebration in 1965.
Don loved music. He played the clarinet, guitar and wrote some songs that his family still keeps. “One of his songs was published while he was in the Navy,” Joanne says. “Unfortunately, he did not have the time to follow up on it.”
“Don put together a little band on one of the ships he served on,” his mother smiles and remembers. “He resembled Elvis Presley and after his group would play in the local clubs while in port, he would sign autographs for some of the girls who really thought he was Elvis. He never told them he wasn’t.”
Having already made the decision to make the Navy a career, Don volunteered for shore duty in Vietnam, in the hopes of landing a choice stateside assignment when his year was up. The ‘family’ battleship would probably still be in Vietnamese waters so Don looked forward to being stationed on the eastern seaboard.
The riverine patrol and harbor security force at Qui Nhon became Don’s home in July of 1967. Although he had been trained, and then served as a signalman aboard ship, his duties were much more dangerous on land. They included underwater checking of U.S. ships’ hulls for explosives, and patrolling the rivers in ‘swift’ boats. According to Mickey, “He lived more like a Marine than a sailor.”
Don returned to his barracks one night to put his guitar away after a Christmas party in the enlisted men’s club. Three Viet Cong sappers had quietly penetrated the base perimeter and one entered the barracks with a grenade launcher, ready to attack. Don was the only other person in the room. The head wound he received resulted in his death two days later.
“We had been more worried about Joanne’s fiance, Mike,” Bobbie McDowell recalls. “He had just returned from Da Nang and there was more going on there than where Don was. We watched and read the news every night. Believe me.”
Mickey remembers watching a football game on television on Christmas day when the naval officer came to the house on DuBois Avenue in West Deptford. The first report was that Don had been critically wounded and had a poor prognosis for recovery. The same officer made a second visit two days later, notifying the family that Don died. He then saw them through the most difficult time of their lives in a caring, professional manner.
“He was great to us,” Bobbie says. “I know it was his job but he really did care.”
Don’s brother, Jim, was in the Coast Guard at the time. He requested leave so he could accompany Don’s body home from Dover Air Force Base. Services were held at Saint Patrick’s Church in Woodbury on January 5, 1968, and burial took place the next day at Beverly National Cemetery with full military honors. Mickey now says, “I was glad Jimmy could do that. It was important to us.”
The outpouring of love and help from friends and neighbors was tremendous. Don was the pride of the neighborhood, according to several of the McDowells’ friends. When Mickey wrote to the Courier-Post the day after Don’s funeral, he stated very simply that:
Although very sad, I am also bursting with pride for a very wonderful son. He was always a credit to his family, his neighborhood, and now his country.
He goes on to thank those who were closest to them in their hour of need. You’ll never know how much it eased the pain.
Joanne remembers the whole period with bittersweet flashes. “Mike and I were married within a month of his return from Vietnam, in November of 1967,” she says. “It was a happy time for us. But then at Christmas, our whole world turned upside down. We went through the ordeal of being notified of Don’s injuries, and then his death, and then a two-week wait for his body to come home.”
“After the funeral, I tried to get my life back into some kind of routine. And then about a week later, I received a letter from Don that he mailed before he was killed. He congratulated Michael and me on our marriage and apologized for not being able to come. I don’t remember if I ever told my parents but I do remember it broke my heart all over again.”
There is a park in West Deptford off Grove Road that was dedicated in Don’s honor on September 15, 1990. Veterans organizations provided color guards and Mayor David Shields was not only master of ceremonies, he was a friend. He and Don had grown up together playing ball, hanging out and becoming a part of each other’s family.
“I had a hard time getting through the written account of his death,” he says. “Don was a hero in every sense of the word.”
Many former teachers and friends came back from wherever their own lives had taken them. With the McDowell family, they reminisced, they laughed and they cried. They honored the life of a fun loving, athletic kid and in doing so, helped each other heal. “That was some day,” says Mickey.
Mickey now serves as a park ranger on weekends along with working as a hall monitor at West Deptford High three days a week. “It keeps me busy and I like the people,” he says. “I also strongly support the New Jersey Vietnam Veterans Memorial and have donated and raised money for them anyway I can.”
At the time of Don’s death, Mickey said, “My boy felt he was doing the right thing and I agree. As far as the war goes, we are doing the right thing. This is still a pretty wonderful country we live in and it is worth fighting and even dying for.”
Now, more than thirty years later, he feels the same and adds, “I still feel we were doing the right thing but we should have done it a lot differently.”
The conviction to God, country and family is as strong as ever with the McDowells. The same intense pride in his son that led Mickey to the Wall that November morning has helped carry them through all these years. The family, and the rest of us, will forever be enriched by the life and the memory of Donald Francis McDowell…a son, a brother, a patriot.

They Were Ours: Gloucester County’s Loss in Vietnam
by John Campbell
Used with permission of author

Donald’s brother, Jim, passed away in November 2003 and his father, Francis, passed away in November 2004. They were both buried with Donald in Beverly National Cemetery.

Sources: John Campbell, Roberta McDowell (mother) and NJVVMF.
12/17/2024