Second Lieutenant Robert Edward Stahl

The Tribune
Seymour, Indiana
Tuesday, September 19, 1944
Page 1

Lt. R. Stahl Dies in Asia Area Accident

Wegan Youth Was Pilot of Mercy Plane-Had Just Written He Was in India

Second Lieutenant Robert Edward Stahl, age twenty-three, a pilot with the U.S. Army Air Forces, was killed while serving in the asiatic area, according to a message just received by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Stahl, residing on a Brownstown rural route in the Wegan vicinity in Grassy Fork township.

Details of how the young county aviator met his death are not known, as the official message from the war department said only that he was killed "in an accident in the Asia area", members of his family said. It added that a letter would follow.

A letter received by his parents just a week ago, on August 12, from the young lieutenant, stated that he was going on his second mission and that they wouldn't hear from him for quite a while. In that letter, he said he was able to tell them for the first time where he was stationed and that he was then in India. He had been piloting a mercy plane equipped as a hospital, he told his family.

Went Overseas In June.

Lt. Stahl, who had observed his twenty-third birthday on July 14, had been overseas since about the middle of June. He took his first aviation training at Keesler Field, Miss., and was graduated April 15, 1944, at Blackland Army Air Base, Waco, Texas, receiving his wings and his commission as a second lieutenant. He was graduated from the Tampico High School and had been engaged in defense work in the Allison Division of General Motors at Indianapolis. For several weeks prior to his enlistment for the army air forces on October 15, 1942. Lt. Stahl was employed at Freeman Field here.

Possessing a likeable personality, Lt. Stahl will be greatly missed by his many friends, who were shocked to hear the message telling of his supreme sacrifice. Besides the parents, his is survived by a sister, Miss Patricia Stahl, who is in nurse's training in a Columbus hospital, and his grandmother, Mrs. Sophia Tomoehlen, of Wegan.

The Tribune
Seymour, Indiana
Wednesday, Septermber 20, 1944
Page 1

LT. ROBERT E. STAHL

Second Lieutenant Robert Edward Stahl, age twenty-three, a pilot with the U.S. Army Air Forces, was killed in an accident while serving in the Asiatic area, his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Stahl, have been informed. He was a resident of the Wegan vicinity and was employed at Freeman Field when he enlisted in the air forces. A recent letter said he was stationed in India and that he was piloting a hospital "mercy" plane. No details of the "accident" have been learned.