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| 2nd Lt. Robert Rogers was a pilot flying B-24s such as this one in the763rd Bomb Squadron. http://freepages.family.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~webermd1/wwII.html https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=49304351&ref=acom |
Robert Jackson Rogers, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on November 5, 1917 in Georgia. His father was also born in Georgia and his mother was born in Iowa. His father worked as a wholesale grocery salesman and later as a feed store salesman. Still later he was a wholesale grocery clerk. Robert had three younger sisters and a younger brother. By 1940 Robert had completed two years of college and was working as a cashier while still living with his parents and siblings.
He became a second lieutenant and pilot in the 763rd Bombardment Squadron, 460th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force which was equipped with B-24 Liberators. It became active against the enemy while based out of Spinazzola, Italy in March 1944.
On April 2, 1944 Lt. Rogers was part of a mission to bomb the Mostar airdrome in Yugoslavia. It was only the third mission of the war for the 460th BG, but it would be Lt. Rogers' last. His plane was hit by flak over the target. The copilot and the four gunners were able to parachute out and became prisoners of war. Lt. Rogers and the other four airman were killed. It was the only plane lost on the mission.
His grave is at Arlington National Cemetery.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Join the public Facebook group WW2 Fallen 100
Very nice. Great video.
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