About The Author

Donald West

Donald West was born on October 10, 1932, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He attended public schools in Oklahoma until, after his junior year at Capitol Hill High School, he relocated to Little Rock, Arkansas, where he graduated as head of the Journalism Department’s photography section.

Donald joined the United States Naval Reserves on his seventeenth birthday in 1949. His father was present when he took the oath. After completing high school, he went to boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois, then to New Orleans, Louisiana, for a Navy training cruise to Cap-Haitian, Haiti, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

He enrolled at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, where he joined the Army Reserve Officers Training Corps. During his senior year, he trained in Field Artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and was. He became the President of The Society of Pershing Rifles and Captain of the Army ROTC Rifle Team. Four years at OU led him to flight school with the Navy in Pensacola, Florida.

He flew both single and multi-engine planes, teaching flying. Furthermore, he flew patrol aircraft in anti-submarine missions, monitoring activities at sea during the Vietnam War. When he left the Navy, he became a businessman and worked for himself.