Donald Wilson Forein was born on August 11, 1923, in Ridge Farm, Vermilion County, Illinois. He was the son of Dennis "Dennie" Forein and Cecil T. Burroughs Cooke. Before joining the Army, he played football and basketball, ran track, played the tuba and sang in school. He served in the B Company, 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, as a Sergeant during World War II.

Sgt Forein was Killed in Action on September 17, 1944, during a battle for Heumen Lock Bridge in the Netherlands. He is now buried in the Netherlands American Cemetery and Memorial, Margraten, Eijsden-Margraten Municipality, Limburg, Netherlands. He also has a cenotaph in the Crown Hill Cemetery, Ridge Farm, Vermilion County, Illinois, USA.

Sources of information: www.findagrave.com, weremember.abmc.gov