Ensign Robert L. Fleetwood

The Tribune
Seymour, Indiana
Wednesday, February 3, 1943
Page 1

Military Services Here For Naval Reserve Crash Victim

Funeral services for Ensign Robert L. Fleetwood, age twenty-seven, a US. Naval Reserve dive-bombing pilot, will be conducted at 2 o'clock Frieday afternoon from the Woss Mortuary here with the Rev. Edwin F. Shake, pastor of teh First Methodist Church, in charge. Burial in Riverview Cemetery. Military rites in charge of Seymour Post No. 89, American Legion, will be conduted.

The body of the young aviator, who was killed at 2:45 o'clock Monday afternoon near Monogram Field, Norfold, Va., when his land plane crashed during routine training operations, will arrive at 7:30 o'clock tonight on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Ensign Robert Burchfiel, a friend of th4e young flier, will be the naval escort accompanying the body to this city.

Ensign Fleetwood, a former prominent Shields High School athlete and an Indianapolis newspaperman after his graduation from Butler University, had been at Norfold only a few days and would have finished his advanced training and been home on leave within a few days, relatives said. Particulars of the crash have not been learned.

While a journalism student, Ensign Fleetwood, son of Earl J. Fleetwood, this city, was president of the university's chapter of Sigma Delta Chi, journalism fraternity; editor of the campus publication, the Butler Collegian, and a member of the Blue Key, national honorary society for Senior men.

While a journalism student at Butler, he gained considerable experience on the staff of the Indianapolis News during spring vacations and after his graduation he bacame a sports writer for the Indianapolis Times. He prepared obituary material of himself for the Times before he left its employ more than a year ago to join the "Inidanapolis, Our Own" spuadron of naval reserve aviation cadets.