Robert Black
Robert Black, of Burlington Junction, graduated from Elmo High School and was an Aviation Cadet. He was drafted into World War II at the age of twenty-four and served as a Staff Sergeant in the United States Air Force.
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He took part in twenty-seven missions with the 305th bomb group. He lost his co-pilot after his first mission, when one of the planes carrying personnel back from a mission hit a tower in Daventry, England, killing thirty-three people.
In 1988 he visited the grave of his co-pilot with other 305th group members. During this trip, Robert wrote the poem “A Visit to the American Cemetery at Cambridge” which can be seen on display at the museum.
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After returning from the war, Robert rented farmland and began farming. He attended a GI program to learn more about farming, before taking a job as a mail carrier in Burlington Junction, a job he had for thirty years. He passed away in June of 2012 and is buried at the Ohio Cemetery in Burlington Junction.
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Transcripts and a full video of an interview with Robert Black are available in the research center at the Nodaway County Historical Society.
Robert Black at Texas Tech Aviation School in Lubbock, TX in 1944.
After retirement from the Army Air Corps in 1945.
Staff Sergeant home from England in 1945.
The first draft of Robert Black's poem, written in 1988 after visiting the American cemetery at Cambridge.
The second page of the draft written on hotel stationary.
Robert Black while giving an interview about his time in the service, which is available in the research center of the Nodaway County Historical Society.