Bigelow, Donald Asa

Born September 30, 1898, in Colchester, Connecticut. Son of Guy M. and Mary MacDonald Bigelow. Educated Colchester public schools, Miller Commercial School, New York, and Morse Business College, Hartford. Private secretary in Hartford, later with Stenotype Company, and shorthand court and public reporter, Boston. Joined American Field Service, March 12, 1917; attached Section Seventeen until August 30, 1917. Entered U. S. Aviation; First Lieutenant. Killed in aeroplane accident, near Paris, June 3, 1918. Buried American Cemetery, Suresnes, Seine. Body to be transferred to Linwood Cemetery, Colchester, Connecticut.

HE had the makings of an 'Ace' in him and would have been a top-notcher " Lieutenant Estey, 99th Aero Squadron, wrote of Donald Asa Bigelow. And he would have been a "top-notcher " in his later life as well as flying had he not died in service abroad. Business associates were alive to his abilities. "Anything he attempts will be done in a creditable manner," wrote one, and another, "He was very exceptionally daring and successful in his undertakings." He had made a remarkable success at school, the principal of his business college remarking "Don" as "without exception the smartest and youngest boy who ever graduated from the school." He was succeeding admirably in business as a reporter in Boston until he heard the call to war service. In the Field Service he was no less successful in winning the admiration and regard of his fellows for his quiet dependability and courage. Then one of his comrades in aviation says, " Don was acknowledged one of our finest pilots," and, continuing, "he lived nineteen years, nineteen years of effort, accomplishment, and brightest success. Now he has attained that highest success, beyond which man can not aspire."

Bigelow, the youngest of four brothers, was recalled by one of them as quiet and industrious even when a boy. He loved to hunt and fish, spending much of his life out of doors, and he entered into the gypsy life of the ambulancier as zestfully as he had into his sports. " Don was always writing of the sunny side of the war and not much about what he was doing," says Dennis Bigelow, while Cecil, another brother, writes that "he always wrote very cheerful letters and seemed to be enjoying his experiences," the details of which never appeared in his letters.

He was eager for service, writing in May, 1917, from semi-repos, "Now that we are so near and yet so far, all the fellows are crying for action" --- his cry no less than theirs. The action came. During the summer months, when attack and counter-attack at last, in August, won Mort Homme and Hill 304 for the French, "Big" worked unobtrusively and faithfully, gladly bearing always a little more than his share. When American troops appeared, Don felt that "with Old Glory in the fight, his and every other Yankee's place was fighting beneath her stars and stripes." So he entered aviation.

Richard Varnum of Section 10, who died recently in France, an aviator, and one of his closest friends, said Don was "expert in all the essential acrobatics," and another aviator mentions his "excellent judgment." Don himself said, while training near Paris, shortly before his death, "It is all a big game. I am going out there to fight, and if I am not good enough or am unlucky, I may get 'biffed off'!"

Lieutenant Bigelow, having trained with fast chasse planes, on June 3, 1918, took up an old Sopwith to test its wireless. He attempted to "zoom up" in his customary speedy climb, the heavier machine side-slipped, and he crashed. Bigelow was taken to a Paris hospital, but never recovered consciousness, and died before they could operate. Surrounded by comrades, he was buried with military honors in the hillside cemetery near Paris.

"I do not know much as to the circumstances of his death," a friend wrote, "but a thousand good fellows can testify how well he lived." Those who knew "Don" join wholeheartedly with the brother who said, " . . .It is hard, but we are mighty proud of First Lieutenant Donald Asa Bigelow."

• Tribute from Memorial Volume of the American Field Service, 1921