Robert Schwaegerl served as a pilot in the 344th Bomb Group. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps having always wanted to learn to fly. When he got the chance, Robert also chose to learn to fly B-26 Marauders. He went on to fly 65 missions in 1944.



On his D-Day mission, the aircraft was damaged as they flew over Utah beach but they managed to get their bombs away over its gun emplacements and get home.



He flew most of his missions with Emmett Lancaster as co-pilot, Leroy Wilsted as bombardier-navigator, Julian Woods as radio-gunner and Robert Johnson as engineer-top turret gunner. He also flew with George Kammermeyer from St. Louis, MO, as his bombardier.



Looking back, Robert said:

'I think we were unusually lucky because we were shot up a lot. We had a lot of holes. One mission, we came back and we had fifty-four holes in our airplane. One other plane had eight in it, and nobody else was even scratched. We had fifty-four holes in our plane, and nobody got hurt. I know other crews had people killed on them. As I said, [the] B-26 had such a safe record as far as crews and everything else goes. They were shot down, of course, but we were never shot down.'



'I feel grateful that I was able to learn how to fly, and I have always appreciated the fact that I did get to fly, particularly flying the airplane of my choice to boot. It was a great experience.'