At the busy junction of York Road and Bellona Avenue in Govans, there is a limestone memorial sitting on a pie-shaped wedge of land that lists the names of Govans servicemen who gave their lives in World War II and subsequent wars.
It was designed by Cyril Hebrank, of Govans, whose son, John H. Hebrank, was killed during the battle for Okinawa in the Pacific Theater during World War II.
Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2570 in Govans sponsored the erection of the monument that was dedicated July 13, 1947, and since then, an American flag has flown above it every day.
One of the names on the memorial is that of Staff Sgt. Richard Campbell Donohue, a St. Paul’s School for Boys student and an outstanding athlete.
He was born in Sparrows Point and raised nearby at 413 E. Belvedere Ave., in what today is known as Belvedere Square.
Donohue, who withdrew from St. Paul’s in 1943, his junior year, enlisted in the Army Air Corps.
After completing training at Buckley Field in Colorado, he was assigned to the 306th Bomb Group, 369th Bomb Squadron, of the 8th Air Force that was based in England. Donohue had been trained as a B-17 Flying Fortress tail gunner.
On Feb. 22, 1944, Donohue and nine crew members departed from Station 111 in Thurleigh, England, bound for a bombing run over Bernburg, Germany.
Returning to their home base, according to official records, they were an hour and a half into their flight when attacked by German fighters.
“They were hit and disabled and the pilot gave the ‘bail out’ order and only one member of the crew was able to bail out prior to the B-17 crashing. Nine members of the crew were killed in the crash,” according to the report.
Donohue was 19.
Listed as “Killed in Action,” he was posthumously awarded the Air Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster and the Purple Heart.
Donohue, who never graduated from St. Paul, was buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, the Netherlands.
On Memorial Day this year, 44 St. Paul’s students, both boys and girls, and seven chaperones traveled some 3,800 miles from Baltimore to Margraten to place his diploma on Donohue’s grave.
Overseeing the project was Jason Coleman, 42, a St. Paul’s Upper School history teacher who is also the assistant varsity football coach and freshman-sophomore head basketball coach.
Coleman, who earned a bachelors’ degree from Columbia University and a master’s degree from its journalism school after serving in the Marine Corps, had previously been a sports journalist for NBC prior to coming to St. Paul’s.
The Rhode Island native brought a particular and personal interest to the project.From 2006 to 2010, he had served two deployments to Iraq where he was an infantry squad leader, earning the Combat action ribbon, Iraq Campaign Medal with one Bronze Star, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon, global War of Terrorism Medal, Expert Rifle and Pistol Qualification, and Meritorious Promotion.
“It was really serendipitous in so many ways,” Coleman said in an interview. “I like to go to the chapel between classes to meditate and pray. I walked in and saw the plaques commemorating our war dead and I wanted to know, who were these men?”
Growing up as a kid in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, he said every New England city and town had a monument listing their war dead and he wanted to know their stories.
“So, I’d look them up,” he said. “That was the genesis for this story along with showing and discussing the Apple TV+ series, “Masters of the Air,” about World War II aviators” to his students.
The St. Paul’s administration was supportive of Coleman’s plan to take the students to Margraten to honor Donohue.
“So, the Veterans Legacy Program was born, which has a research aspect for the students as well as combining history and journalism. It showed students how they had to be detectives.”
Coleman said the cemetery where the American dead rest is meticulously cared for and administered by the authorities and residents who welcomed them.
“The Dutch citizens have tended the graves for decades and brought flowers,” Coleman said.
It was a gray and gloomy rainy day when the students and chaperones arrived at the military cemetery, and located Donohue’s resting place — Section K, Row 7, Grave 4.
“The rain had stopped and when we found Donohue’s grave it was very emotional for me but it was very satisfactory to know that he was there,” Coleman said. “We recited the St. Paul’s School prayer and a number of the students cried. We all got something out of what we had traveled so far for.”
A student on the trip, Matthew Sola, discovered that his great-grandfather, PFC Angus Gillis of Baltimore, was also buried at Margraten. He and his classmates also visited his great-grandfather’s grave.
The students were a week away from graduation and about to begin the second phase of their lives.
“It was a powerful experience and it made a great impact on them,” Coleman said. “And their story is part of that. For me, it was connective tissue to the military and I can relate to that.”
He said Donohue’s diploma would be on permanent display in the cemetery’s archives.