Robert Heichel attended the Windber High School during four years (his description in the Class of 1942 Yearbook : “He hath a stern look, but a merry heart.”) Before his enlistment in the Air Corps in 1942, he helped to build B-24 Liberators at the Ford Motor Company's Willow Run, Michigan plant. He trained at the San Antonio Aviation Cadet Center, Texas and is pictured as a Flight cadet in "The Mister", yearbook of the 44F class of the 304th Army Air Force Flying Training Detachment at Coleman, Texas. Sent overseas after training, he was assigned as a Pilot in the 491st Bomb Group / 854th Bomb Squadron in England. He was Pilot of B-24 "Belle Ringer" # 42-51195 when he managed to crash-land it in Belgium on return from the 14 March 1945 mission to bomb the marshalling yards at Gütersloh, Germany. Knocked unconscious by the crash, Robert woke up in a Belgian hospital and was later repatriated to the USA. He was discharged on 19 September 1945 from the Fort Indiantown Gap Military Reservation Service Center, Pennsylvania. On 28 December 1947, Robert Heicher and his Windber friends Aaron J. Bigan, 17 and James R. Morey, 18, took off in a early model Beechcraft Bonanza (V-tail variant) from a Johnstown, PA airport on a vacation trip after Christmas, intending to fly to Washington and from there to Miami, Florida. Unfortunately, shortly after take-off, an explosion was heard by a farmer, followed by a crash. A local coroner stated that the bodies of the three men and wreckage of the plane were scattered over a wide area and that the aircraft had exploded in the air.

Robert Heichel’s nephew Jay, himself a pilot, has a website dedicated to his Uncle Robert at http://www.inexpensiveflighttraining.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=8801…