Lieutenant Robert J. Meder
- First name: | Robert |
- Middle name: | John |
- Last name: | Meder |
- Nickname: | Bob |
- Rank Doolittle raid: | Lieutenant |
- Last rank: | Lieutenant |
- Service number: | 0-411140 |
- Date of birth: | 23 August 1917 |
- Place of birth: | Cleveland, Ohio |
- Date of death: | 11 December 1943 |
- Place of death: | Died as POW in Nanking, China |
- Place of the cemetery: | Shangai, China - after the war on 17 January 1949 he was reburied @ Arlington, Virginia |
- Name of the cemetery: | Arlington National Cemetery |
Additional info
Robert J. Meder was born on 23 August 1917 in Cleveland, Ohio, to Martin and Rose Meder. Robert had two sisters. Lucille and Doris Meder. He graduated from Lakewood High School where he was a cheerleader and in 1935, he entered Miami University where he was an active member of Phi Kappa Tau and the YMCA, as well as a member of the cheerleading team, the track team and Tribe Miami.
Meder was the navigator for sixth bomber, plane# 40-2298 nicknamed "The Green Hornet", to depart the deck of the USS Hornet during the mission. On April 18, 1942, Meder and his B-25's four crewmembers, took off from the Hornet and reached Tokyo, Japan. They bombed their target; a steel mill in the north of the city. They then headed for their recovery airfield in China. Running low on fuel due to the early launch of the raid, the B-25s failed to reach any of the designated safety zones in China. The pilot of Meder's bomber, First Lieutenant Dean E. Hallmark, was forced to ditch at sea off the coast of Wenzhou, China. William J. Dieter (bombardier) and Sergeant Donald E. Fitzmaurice (gunner) drowned when the aircraft ditched into the sea, while Meder, Hallmark and navigator Chase Nielsen managed to swim ashore. The next day, they buried the bodies of Fitzmaurice and Dieter.
Before the Doolittle raid took place he wrote a last letter home - paragraph 5 :
"This is a big and tough job that we have ahead of us. However, you cannot conquer that great American determination and sense of cooperation. It is ours to place unfailing faith in the Divine power that is guiding us.
"So much can be done with faith, courage and determination. So let us refrain from worry, and someday in the not-so-distant future we shall be able to look back on all of this as a nightmare, but strengthened by the knowledge that we continue to live and think as a free people."
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Meder and other prisoners of the raid were placed in solitary confinement and on the anniversary of the Doolittle Raid in 1943, the prisoners were transferred to a military prison at Nanking, where they were able to exercise with each other for 30 minutes each day. Months of starvation and disease resulted in Meder becoming weaker and requiring medical assistance. He died of malnutrition and beri-beri on December 1, 1943, while still in captivity. His death resulted in the improvements of conditions for the remaining prisoners of the raid. He was cremated by the Japanese and his ashes, along with that of Farrow, Spatz and Hallmark, were located after the war and returned home. On January 17, 1949, Meder was buried with full military honors at Section 12, Site 159 of Arlington National Cemetery.
There is a Robert J. Meder Squadron at Miami University - https://www.miamialum.org/s/916/22/Interior.aspx?sid=916&gid=1&pgid=9451&cid=17527&ecid=17527&crid=0&calpgid=10910&calcid=20299
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