Hayden announces Distinguished Veteran of The Year
Hal Donahue with the model he pieced together of the USS Frank Fletcher battleship. Pictured is the USS Owen 536, a Fletcher-class destroyer that Donahue served on.
File Photo: Bill Buley
Hayden's distinguished veteran of the year, Harold "Hal" Donahue (Left) with his son Chris Donahue at a Disabled Americn Veterans fundraiser. Chris is a retired Idaho State Police officer, and Harold is a member of the American Legion Post 154 in Rathdrum, where he performs ceremonies for veterans in his free time.
The City of Hayden will introduce Harold “Hal” Donahue as the 2022 Distinguished Veteran of the Year.
The city's Veterans Commission will hold the 16th annual Veterans Day Ceremony to recognize the 2022 Distinguished Veteran of the Year at 11 a.m. Nov. 11 at McIntire Family Park behind Hayden City Hall.
The names of those with newly installed pavers in the PFC Robert J. Gordon Memorial plaza will also be announced.
The guest speaker for this year’s ceremony will be Senior Vice-Commander of Post Falls VFW Post 3603 and First Vice-Commander Steven Nipp of American Legion Post 143. Shay will expand on the experiences from his military career and beyond during the Veterans Day address.
Donahue was 19 when he enlisted in the Navy and served as an Electronic Seaman Recruit from 1952-1956.
At his first station, Donahue and his crew tracked activities and made sure Russian submarines stayed out of restricted areas in 1953.
In May 1954, he transferred to the USS Murray stationed in Norfolk, Va., where he spent three months in the Mediterranean doing training exercises and visited ports in N. Africa, Italy, Spain, Sicily and Greece.
While enlisted, Donahue also traveled to France, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, England, Norway and Denmark and participated in exercises in the North Sea with the British Navy.
He later transferred to the USS Owen, in Norfolk and headed to the Panama Canal, then to Long Beach to prepare for duty in the S. China Sea, where he spent nine months patrolling the Formosa Straits between mainland China and Formosa (now Taiwan).
Donahue joined the Naval Reserve in 1956.
He returned to Montana in 1957 and got a job in the Williston Oil Basin as a roughneck on an oil rig.
Donahue met Patricia, and they were married in July of 1959, and he received his honorable discharge from the Naval Reserve in 1960.
When his wife developed Alzheimer’s in 2014, they moved to Idaho to join their son Chris, a police officer in Post Falls. Patricia passed away Sept. 27, 2020.
The Donahues were married for 61 years, had six children and a wonderful marriage.
Throughout his time in Idaho, Donahue has been busy as a member of the Honor Guard and the American Legion Post 154 in Rathdrum, where he performs ceremonies for veterans.
