Don went into the Navy when he was 17, shortly after graduating from high school. He went to boot camp in Great Lakes, Illinois and then went to Bainbridge, Maryland for additional training. 

He then arrived in Coronado, California at the Naval Amphibious Base before leaving for Enewetok in the South Pacific. There he was part of a command that watched and reported on the weather and the fallout from nuclear testing that was taking place at the time. The program, known as Operation Hardtack I, included 35 nuclear tests in the South Pacific from January -- August 1958. The Operation was intended to convey the United States' military superiority during the Cold War. 

From there, he was stationed in Hawaii where he was a radioman before he left the Navy.