Donald Jackson Strait (April 28, 1918 – March 30, 2015) was a major general who served as a career officer in the United States Air Force and was a flying ace with the 356th Fighter Group during World War II.

[2] In his teens, Strait had an interest in model aircraft and would ride his bicycle 8 miles (13 km) to the Caldwell Wright Airport, where he would watch the planes flying and speak to pilots and workers at the facility.

He went to work for Public Service Electric and Gas and then Prudential Insurance after graduating from high school.

Commissioned as a second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Force, he completed his training in March 1943 on the P-47 Thunderbolt in Connecticut.

Any guy that would take off in a single engine airplane, cross the North Sea in the wintertime and take a chance of getting his ass shot off by the Luftwaffe or by anti-aircraft fire has got to be a jerk.