Did you know that Donn Beach served in the military? When World War II broke out, Ernest Raymond Beaumont Gantt joined the army, reaching the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force. He was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star when the ship he was on was torpedoed by a U-boat off the coast of North Africa. After recovery, he was “put to work setting up rest camps for combat-weary airman of the 12th and 15th Air Forces in Capri, Nice, Cannes, the French Riviera, Venice, the Lido and Sorrento…” as the operator of officer rest and recreation centers at the order of Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle, a close friend of his. After his passing, Donn Beach was buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific located in an extinct volcano known as Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Hawaii on the island of Oahu, which serves as a memorial to those who served in the United States Military.
