https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/153167550/robert-alois-swantek

Born Robert Alois Swantek 19 Dec 1923 at Dearborn, Michigan.

He enlisted (ASN: 36584848) as a Private in the Army Air Corps during March 1943, and was selected for aerial gunnery training.

After aerial gunnery and radio operator training, he underwent B-29 aircraft operational combat crew training at Smoky Hill Army Air Field near Salina, 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, 499th Bombardment Group (VH), 877th Bomb Squadron stationed at Isely Field on Saipan in the Mariana Islands.

**On 2 April 1945, he flew as an Aerial Gunner in the Central Fire Control (CFC) “barber chair” position aboard a Boeing B-29 Super Fortress (nicknamed **Jug Haid II) tail code V-Square-2 (serial #42-24650) of the 877th Bomb Squadron.

It was one of 115 aircraft launched in a multi-group formation to bombard the Nakajima aircraft plant 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 north-east towards Tokyo. His aircraft was hit with flak from anti-aircraft artillery while over the target area, and crashed in Ituka, near Kawasaki City in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan.

He was initially listed as MIA, and declared Killed-In-Action after the war ended.

O-868103Jack M Danowitz 2Lt NY 2-4-1945 #42-24650 Flight Engineer

15064078William A Davis, Jr SSgt OH 2-4-1945 #42-24650

O-789152Kenneth Hyde Dustin Capt NY 2-4-1945# 42-24650 Airplane Command Pilot

O-758601Robert Bruns Merz 1Lt NJ 2-4-1945 #42-24650 Pilot, Right Seat

31241003William H Osborne Sgt MA 2-4-1945 #42-24650

O-698345Vernon L Repp 2Lt KS 2-4-1945 #42-24650

36449843Robert F Ross SSgt IL 2-4-1945 #42-24650

36584848Robert Alois Swantek SSgt MI 2-APRIL-1945 #42-24650 CFC Aerial Gunner

O-695710Nicholas Vescia 2Lt NY 2-4-1945 #42-24650

Robert A Swantek