Hiram Donald Dunham was born at Yankton, South Dakota on December 9, 1925. He was the youngest of ten children of Hiram Eugene Dunham (10 Aug 1876 – 28 Jul 1955), who was born in Dakota Territory, and Gertrude Lilly 'Gertie' (Kendall) Dunham (5 Oct 1884 – 23 Nov 1967), who was born at Hartland, Waukesha County, Wisconsin. His parents married in 1902. His father was a farmer. His father's parents were Hiram A. Dunham (Sep 1846 – 25 Jan 1927), who was born in New Jersey, and Susan Jane (Schooler) Grant Dunham (1844 – 17 Aug 1893), who was born in Canada.

Hiram D. Dunham graduated from Yankton High School in Yankton, South Dakota. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1944, and trained at Las Vegas, Nevada and Tampa, Florida. After training he was assigned as ball turret gunner on the heavy bomber crew of Lt Floyd W. McCullough. The McCullough crew completed crew training in the States and departed Hunter Field, Georgia on November 26, 1944, bound for England via the North Atlantic Ferry route. The crew was assigned to the 837th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group at Army Air Forces Station 137, near the village of Lavenham, Suffolk, England. The crew arrived at Station 137 by December 7, 1944, and became part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.

S/Sgt Dunham and four of his crew mates were killed in action on February 20, 1945, when their aircraft, B-17G 43-38596, was shot down by flak after bombs away over Nuremberg, Germany. The aircraft took a direct hit during the turn away from the target, the railroad station at Nuremberg, and exploded within 30 seconds. S/Sgt Dunham's crew mate, S/Sgt Raffel, was trying to help him exit the ball turret when the aircraft exploded. The Germans reported that the aircraft crashed at Rφthenbach an der Pegnitz, 10 kilometers east of Nuremberg, between 1300 and 1400 hours. The dead were buried at the cemetery in Fόrth, Germany, just west of Nuremberg.

S/Sgt Dunham's remains were returned to the United States, and reinterred at Yankton Municipal Cemetery, in Yankton, South Dakota in 1950.

B-17G 43-38596 crew:
• McCullough, Floyd W – 2/Lt – Pilot – POW
• Elam, Paul J – 2/Lt – Copilot – POW
• Whyte, Thomas C – F/O – Navigator – KIA
• Lehmkuhl, Donald J – 2/Lt – Bombardier – POW
• Taft, Kay S – T/Sgt – Engineer – POW
• Mitchell, Robert E – T/Sgt – Radio Operator – KIA
• Brotherton, Wayne C – Sgt – Spot Jammer – KIA
• Dunham, Hiram D – S/Sgt – Ball Turret Gunner – KIA
• Raffel, William P – S/Sgt – Waist Gunner – KIA
• Hyatt, Gilbert E – S/Sgt – Tail Gunner – POW

Source of information: Paul M. Webber, www.findagrave.com