Robert was a high school senior when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened on December 7, 1941.
He joined the US Army Air Corps on March 15, 1943 at the age of 18.
After basic training, Robert was sent to gunnery school to learn how to shoot the .50 caliber machine guns used on heavy bombers. He soon qualified and became a top turret gunner on a B-24 Liberator.
Robert was sent to England and was assigned to the famous 8th Air Force. He was assigned to the 492nd Bomb Group, 856th Bomb Squadron.
Robert’s most memorable experience was the day that his bomber was hit by German flak. The plane was on fire so the order was given for the crew to bail out. Robert came down from the top turret and realized that his flying suit was on fire too! He saw that his parachute was not fully hooked up but he jumped anyway. Robert landed in the cold Baltic Sea and was soon picked up by a patrolling German E-boat crewed by German Marines.
Robert said that he was lucky and that God was surely looking out for him. He found out after the war that he was the only surviving crewman on his B-24. He got out of the hospital and spent the next year as a prisoner of war. Before his release, Robert walked 800 miles across Poland and Germany, heading west since the Russian army was coming. The German’s didn’t want to release their prisoners, and they didn’t want to become POW’s of the Russian’s.
Robert was discharged on October 31, 1945 as a Tech Sergeant.
He received the French Croix De Guerre medal, the POW Medal, Purple Heart, D-Day Normandy Campaign Medal, and the European Air Offensive Medal with clusters.
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