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Robert Thermond Arnoldus

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Robert Thermond Arnoldus

Birth
Oregon, USA
Death
5 Nov 1944 (aged 27)
At Sea
Burial
Summerville, Union County, Oregon, USA GPS-Latitude: 45.4738078, Longitude: -117.9897659
Memorial ID
View Source
The following information was furnished by contributor No.
47109209 (dfr)

He was named after his maternal grandfather Robert C Finley, a Civil War veteran of the 17th South Carolina Infantry.

Arnoldus attended Riveria Elementary School and La Grande High School. He graduated from Oregon State college in Corvallis.

He graduated from the US Army's first long range navigation school Coral Gables Florida in 1940 and was assigned to Army Transport Command, Fort Dodge Utah. He was navigator for General Hap Arnold from Australia to Washington, DC in 1942 as well as serving as navigator for Eleanor Roosevelt on her American Red Cross Tour, San Francisco to Southwest Pacific and back in August and September 1943.

Major Arnoldus was the navigator on B-29-15-BW #42-6370 nicknamed 'Lethal Lady', assigned to the 20th Air Force, 58th Bombardment Wing, 468th Bombardment Group, 793rd Bombardment Squadron. They were on a night time mission to bomb the Singapore naval base when the plane exploded and crashed into the sea. None of the crew survived.

Arnoldus received the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart.

He is also memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

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The following information was furnished by contributor No.
47109209 (dfr)

He was named after his maternal grandfather Robert C Finley, a Civil War veteran of the 17th South Carolina Infantry.

Arnoldus attended Riveria Elementary School and La Grande High School. He graduated from Oregon State college in Corvallis.

He graduated from the US Army's first long range navigation school Coral Gables Florida in 1940 and was assigned to Army Transport Command, Fort Dodge Utah. He was navigator for General Hap Arnold from Australia to Washington, DC in 1942 as well as serving as navigator for Eleanor Roosevelt on her American Red Cross Tour, San Francisco to Southwest Pacific and back in August and September 1943.

Major Arnoldus was the navigator on B-29-15-BW #42-6370 nicknamed 'Lethal Lady', assigned to the 20th Air Force, 58th Bombardment Wing, 468th Bombardment Group, 793rd Bombardment Squadron. They were on a night time mission to bomb the Singapore naval base when the plane exploded and crashed into the sea. None of the crew survived.

Arnoldus received the Air Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters and the Purple Heart.

He is also memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing in the Manila American Cemetery in the Philippines.

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Inscription

Oregon Major Army Air Forces World War II
AM & 2 OLC-PH



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