Robert Lee Arnold was the son of Harris Claude arnold and Eliza Alice “Lizzy” Pierce. Husband of Billie Joyce Moore and father of Bobby Joyce Arnold. Foster son of Nancy Sullivan.
Aircraft B-29 with serial number 44-69665 departed from West Field in Tinian on a combat mission to Kobe, Japan. The aircraft was hit by enemy fighters and went down in a slow spiral, one engine smoking. The aircraft was seen to crash approximately 23 miles from the coast of Southern Honshu.
69665 was shot down by Japanese fighter June 5, 1945 over Shorenji Nabari City Mie, Japan, while on mission to Kobe. MACR 14390. 2 Crew were KIA, 9 bailed out and became POW. 3 Died in captivity and 6 were executed.
Crewmembers
Captain Robert L. Arnold
1st Lt Vincent L. Garman
S/Sgt Glenn C. Huhnstock
S/Sgt Kenneth L. Kirkland
S/Sgt Theodore P. Ladd
Cpl Theodore J. Mainiere
Sgt Joseph R. McDaniel
1st Lt Harry P. Polgar
S/Sgt Charles L. Vreeland
F/O Melvin Wolf
1st Lt Roy M. Young
The Miami Herald, 25 September 1942
Within 40 hours of flight training of his commission as a second lieutenant in the army air forces, Aviation Cadet Robert L. Arnold, son of Mrs. Nancy Arnold, 820 Tangier St., Coral Gables, was injured in a crash at Ellington Field, Texas. He lost four months of training while recuperating. But like other American boys he went back just as soon as able and it’s now 2nd Lt. Arnold, having gained his commission and wings as a pilot. He is now at Sebring in combat service. Lt. Arnold is a graduate of the Miami Senior High School and of the University of Miami law school. His mother experts him home on furlough next month.
The Knoxville Journal, 25 December 1948
The body of Capt. Robert L. Arnold, foster son of Mrs. Nancy Sullivan, Coral Gables, Fla., who was killed in action in Kobe, Japan, arrived in Knoxville yesterday over the L&N Railroad. It was removed to Mann’s Mortuary. Funeral services will be held at Friends Methodist Church. Interment in Friends Station Cemetery. Mrs. Sullivan, foster mother, is here to attend the funeral. Capt. Arnold, a law student at Miami University when he entered the service, also is survived by a daughter, Bobby Joyce Arnold, Texarkana, Ark.
- Rank: Captain
- Date of birth: 7 July 1920
- Date of death: 5 June 1945
- County: Jefferson
- Hometown: New Market
- Service Branch: Army/Army Air Forces
- Division/Assignment: 793rd Bomber Squadron, 468th Bomber Group, Very Heavy
- Theater: Pacific
- Conflict: World War II
- Burial/Memorial Location: Friends Station Cemetery, New Market, Jefferson County, TN
- Location In Memorial: Pillar XII, Bottom Panel
- Contact us to sponsor Robert L. Arnold
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