Robert Hilton Cahoon was born in Chunky, Mississippi in October 1921. Cahoon liked school, but school was only for eight months a year until he went to college, when it became nine months. During his two years in college, he briefly lived in Clinton, Mississippi, and Monroe, Louisiana, during which time he took nine month courses. He had two siblings. During the Great Depression, Cahoon's father, a railroad worker, was laid off. Owning a house, but no land, in Chunky, Cahoon and his family moved back from Monroe, and started share-cropping. Cahoon remembered always having enough to eat, but his mother always said she "went to sleep a lot of nights crying a lot of the time because she knew we did not have what we would like to eat." The family had a garden, and Cahoon's mother canned food. His Grandfather owned a local grocery store where the family would charge for groceries until they were able to pay for them. As a child, Cahoon did not realize times were so tough because everyone was in the same boat. In 1940, after graduating from high school, Cahoon and his family moved to Pickens, Mississippi, where he worked in a drug store. When the family was farming, he picked, chopped, and hoed cotton and corn. When he was done planting crops on his family farm, Cahoon was hired out for 75 cents a day to work on other people's farms for nine to ten hours. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii] on 7 December 1941, Cahoon was working in the drug store. When he heard the news, he knew he would be going into the military soon. He felt like it was something he needed to do.

Robert Cahoon was drafted into the Army on his 21st birthday. When he reported to Camp Shelby [Annotator's Note: near Hattiesburg, Mississippi], Cahoon was given several aptitude tests to see what job he should have in the Army. He was then sent to the Army Air Corps to work in a clerical position. He did his basic training at Keesler Field in Biloxi [Annotator's Note: Biloxi, Mississippi], then he transferred to the Anderson Organization School in Los Angeles [Annotator's Note: Los Angeles, California], where he learned typing, history of the war, and planes, particularly the C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] which his unit [Annotator's Note: 55th Troop Carrier Squadron, 375th Troop Carrier Group, 54th Troop Carrier Wing, 5th Air Force] flew. Cahoon was deployed to Brisbane, Australia, taking three weeks to get there because the convoy zig-zagged [Annotator's Note: a naval anti-submarine maneuver] to avoid Japanese submarines. On 3 July 1942, he crossed the International Date Line. When he arrived in Brisbane, it was winter [Annotator's Notes: winter and summer in the southern hemisphere are reversed from the northern hemisphere]. Cahoon was stationed at a race track and slept under the grand stand. USO [Annotator's Note: United Service Organizations] shows came to the track occasionally and Cahoon remembered seeing an actor from The Wizard of Oz. He stayed in Brisbane for a short time before being sent to Port Moresby, New Guinea. Being stationed on the equator, it was very hot. Cahoon slept in a tent, on a cot, and under mosquito netting, which he thought was primitive. He took Atabrine [Annotator's Note: an anti-malarial medication] every day to combat malaria. After a time, the Atabrine turned him yellow. He kept his water in a lister bag and kept it well chlorinated to help keep it clean. Cahoon's job in his unit was to record the flying time of the pilots, navigators, and C-47s. These logs helped the crews monitor the C-47 engine loadings and let them know when they would need any kind of repairs. His logs also allowed flight crews to monitor their flight times and determine when they should take breaks from flying. The unit name was the 55th Troop Carrier Squadron. Cahoon did not have many interactions with the Aboriginal people of New Guinea. He did not find them to be a particularly attractive group of people. Years before the war, the native people were headhunters, until the missionaries arrived on the island. Cahoon experienced some Japanese bombing raids, but he did not see Japanese troops up close. He would get into his foxhole and wonder why they could not hit him. It was not until he got into the air that he saw how wide the bombing area was for the Japanese. Cahoon remembered MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] was a good general. Cahoon stayed in New Guinea the longest of all his stations.

Robert Cahoon briefly stayed on Biak in the Netherlands East Indies [Annotator's Note: in May 1944, Cahoon left New Guinea for Biak]. After leaving Biak, Cahoon went to northern Luzon, near Porac in the Philippines. While on Luzon, Cahoon became anemic due to poor diet. Because of this, he was flown to a general hospital on Leyte [Annotator's Note: Leyte, Philippines], where General MacArthur [Annotator's Note: General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area] made his return to the Philippines. He stayed there for three weeks, enjoying the food and recovering for his anemia. Following his stay on Leyte, he returned to his unit [Annotator's Note: 55th Troop Carrier Squadron, 375th Troop Carrier Group, 54th Troop Carrier Wing, 5th Air Force]. While on R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation] in Manila [Annotator's Note: Manila, Luzon, Philippines], he stayed in a beautiful two story house with green marble entryway. He had a house boy named Joe, who would take C-Rations and turn them into a good meal. Cahoon was able to see the damage inflicted to the city by Japanese bombardment. He thought the Filipino people could not have been any nicer, and they loved the Americans. Cahoon stayed in the Philippines until the end of the war. When it ended, he was transferred to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan], where his unit was transporting occupation troops. Many of the places they went did not have real runways, so portable, steel runways were installed. He was given the option to go to Japan, but decided to return to the Philippines. When the atomic bombs were dropped, Cahoon was at Clark Field in the Philippines. When the bomb was dropped, everyone rushed to a radio to keep up with the news. He was happy about the war being over. His best friend was from Houston, Texas, and had a family back home, including a baby he had never seen. Cahoon did not have enough points to go home, but his friend was able to go home. When he did leave for the United States, he sailed on the Admiral R.E. Coonts [Annotator's Note: USS Admiral R.E. Coonts (AP-122)]. The ship took a northern route back to the United States, finally landing in Tacoma, Washington. It was so foggy, he could not see Seattle, Washington. Cahoon was so happy to finally step on United Sates soil again he kissed the ground. He then boarded a plane going east, eventually arriving in Hattiesburg [Annotator's Note: Mississippi], where he was discharged from the Army.

After being discharged, Robert Cahoon returned to Pickens, Mississippi. He did not have a difficult time readjusting to civilian life despite being around so many northerners. Cahoon used the G.I. Bill, which he believed was the best thing the government ever did. Before the war, Cahoon had taken two years of college courses at Holmes Junior College [Annotator's Note: in Goodman, Mississippi]. He commuted to school. Because his family did not have a car, he rode with the mother of his best friend, who was the music director at the junior college. If that was not possible, he rode to school with his friend Sam Kaplan. In those days, there were two Jewish families in the area and one of them was Kaplan's. Cahoon earned an accounting degree with honors from Mississippi State College [Annotator's Note: now Mississippi State University or MSU in Starkville, Mississippi]. In high school, Cahoon had been a member of the FFA, Future Farmers of American, and during a meeting, they went to Mississippi State College, which is why he chose that school. Cahoon is not a drinker, but the service members that did drink beer would drip gasoline on the can to cool it down, then dunk the can in water to wash it off, and then finally would drink the beer, which Cahoon saw as a feat of American ingenuity. Cahoon thinks The National WWII Museum [Annotator's Note: in New Orleans, Louisiana] is an outstanding display of the war and a wonderful place. He does not believe the nation understands the sacrifices of his generation. The following generations never went through the Great Depression or rationing, which Cahoon thinks is wonderful but leads him to believe that this is the reason why the following generations do not understand the war. Cahoon was recalled for the Korean War. He did not go overseas, instead serving at Barksdale Airforce Base in Bossier City, Louisiana. He was in SAC, Strategic Air Command. His wife was a secretary to a colonel. When they got to the base, there was not enough housing. In a short amount of time, they were given housing quarters. They are still friends with some of those people. At one point, he went to Dallas for a state fair. He saw a lot of shows at the fair including Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis.