I recall on May 7, 1944 when Bob was with Crew 13 when they went on that tragic trip to BERLIN when Lt Becker (Nav) was killed and Lt Torbett (Bom) was seriously wounded and Capt. Van Steenis brought them back on two engines. That was the end of the "Original" Crew 13. The Crew was disbanded after that mission. All Crewmembers were through with their missions except Lt Jack Ogg, Sgt Butchino and Bob. Bob had one last mission to complete his tour.

Bob was given the chance to choose his next and last mission. He was now on spare duty to fly with anyone who needed a gunner. That day arrived May 24, 1944. Bob was listed to fly. He went to Operations at Site 4 the night of May 23rd and saw the B-17 loading list (bomb load and fuel) and determined the target would be BERLIN again.

Sgt Goodman returned to our barracks and mentioned, "I don’t care to go to Berlin again and I think that is where this one is headed" (not really knowing for sure until briefing the next morning). Later Bob said "I’m going back to Ops and remove my name…Which he did. Later that night when we were all "sacked out", I heard Bob being very restless. I asked him what the problem was? He answered "Well if I don’t go and someone in my place gets killed, I’ll never live with myself. I’m going back and sign on again" Which he did.

The 100th Bomb Group was indeed, headed for BERLIN on May 24, 1944 and lost 9 planes that day. When the Group had landed we all went and shook hands with Bob and gave him our congrats. He had a well-earned wide grin on his face; very proud of his decision I am sure. We were all happy to see he made back. I thought "what a dedicated life threatening decision for a young man of 21 to make". Bob always made light of this event saying, "Well, it could have been a milk run"

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