1Lt. Donald Manley was born in Louisiana on October 15, 1920 to the union of Miss Celestine Angela Brent (1880-1983) of Pensacola and Rufus Sumner Manley (1878-1956) of Kansas. His father graduated from Annapolis in 1901 and his mother was the daughter of the esteemed Francis Celestino Brent (1848-1914) and Mary Ella Shuttleworth (1852-1905). The Brent's were the namesake of the Brent community in Pensacola, Brentwood School, and Brent Lane. Donald's father supported his family as the president of several creosote businesses with the last being in Orange, Texas. Donald's grandfather F. C. Brent fought for the Confederacy in the 62nd Alabama Infantry while his uncle Daniel Gonzalez Brent was with the 1st Florida Infantry Regiment. His great grandfather, Thomas William Brent commanded the ironclad CSS Savannah in 1864 and after its destruction that same year he was eventually captured and paroled in Mobile in 1865.
The Brent family is highly connected with many of the "who's who" of Pensacola and is related to such community cornerstones as the Gonzalez, Shuttleworth, Saltmarsh, Watson, Turtle, Sierra, Graupera, Moreno, Bingham, and Brosnaham families and many more.
In the meantime, when WWII broke out, all five of Celestine's sons enlisted in the military. There was Rufus Jr., Brent, Charles Conrad, James Grant, and Donald. Sadly, Grant was on night patrol in his P-40 fighter out of Clark field when he crashed into the mountains north of Manila on November 27, 1941. He was stationed with the U.S. Army Air Corps, 17th Pursuit Squadron, 24th Pursuit Group at the time of his death. He was buried in the Manila American Military Cemetery in Honolulu. Ten days after his death, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
On December 16, 1944, the Germans mounted a deadly counter-offensive that came to be known as the "Battle of the Bulge." It was a devastating attack that required all American personnel to join in the fight to survive. At the time, Celestine's son Donald was assigned to Patton's 3rd Army with the 40th Field Artillery Group as a forward artillery spotter. On New Year’s Eve, he was flying with his pilot behind enemy lines when they were shot down by ground fire. They both survived the crash and walked back to their unit where Donald resumed his duties. But the situation was urgent enough that Donald was sent up the next day to obtain valuable information as to the Germans strength and location. Therefore, he took off again on New Year’s Day near Saarland, Germany, flying low and radioing back the information headquarters needed so badly. Suddenly, a German fighter dove out of the clouds and fired several bursts from its 20-mm cannons that literally tore the unarmored spotter plane apart. The plane crashed, killing both Donald and the pilot instantly on January 1, 1945. For the second time in her life, his mother would receive a telegram from the War Department announcing the death of yet another son. Fortunately, Donald's body was recovered, and he was buried in the Luxembourg Military Cemetery in Luxembourg, Germany.
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