Born Robert Walter Chapla in 1918 at Bessemer, Gogebic County, Michigan. Residing in South Bend, Indiana he enlisted (ASN: 15060599) as a Private in the Army Air Corps on 14 November 1940 at Fort Benjamin Harrison northeast of Indianapolis, Indiana. He was selected for aviation cadet training, completed pre-flight ground school, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant (ASN: O-868099) in the USAAF.

On 5 February 1944, he married the former Edith Marie Brown of Goshen, Indiana [daughter of Willard L. and Elizabeth (Schriener) Brown].

Per 22nd Air Base Headquarters, Special Orders #66, dated 6 March 1944, he graduated with Class #25-44 from Flight Engineer School (FES) at Lowry Field near Denver, Colorado and was attached to 17th Bombardment Operational Training Wing at Clovis Army Air Base, New Mexico. Subsequently, he underwent B-29 aircraft operational training and was assigned to Aircrew A-23 at Pratt Army Air Field, Kansas.

In September 1944, he deployed from Mather Field, California (with re-fueling stops at Hawaii and Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands) to the central pacific theatre of operations and was assigned to 20th Air Force, XXI Bomber Command, 73rd Bomb Wing, 497th Bombardment Group (VH), 870th Bomber Squadron stationed at Isley field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands.

Flight Engineer: O-868099Robert W Chapla 2Lt IN 27-1-1945 #42-24619 A-SQ-23

On 27 January 1945, he flew as the Flight Engineer aboard a Boeing B-29 Superfortress nicknamed “Shady Lady” tail code A-square-23 (serial #42-24619).

A-SQ-23 was one of 74 aircraft launched in a multi-group formation to bombard the Musashino aircraft engine factory near Tokyo, Japan. After a flight of approximately six hours and some 1,200 nautical miles, his aircraft reached their check-point above Mount Fuji on the main island of Honshu, and began their bomb-run northeast towards Tokyo.

While over the target area, the group was attacked by a band of Nakajima ki-44 single-engine “Tojo” fighter planes. Enemy fighter opposition was described as being: “unparalleled in intensity.” When last sighted by the aircrew of A-square-21, his B-29 aircraft was neither damaged nor out of control, but never returned to Isley Field. Post-war indications are that the Shady Lady exploded over the Kofu area of Japan while under enemy fighter attack.

He was initially listed as MIA and declared Killed-In-Action one year later.