Robert Rans was born in Chicago, Illinois in April 1921. Family life was mostly normal until the war started. He worked as a soda jerk at a hotel and had not finished high school when he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. After Pearl Harbor, everyone knew that they were going to have to be available one way or another. His parents were divorced, and he lived with his mother and sister. He ran around a lot due to his mother working. The Depression made his mother work day and night often. He and his sister were left alone a lot. Even though one could not get enough of what one wanted, they had enough, and they did the best with that. He decided to enlist in the Navy and took a physical. The Chief Petty Officer at the enlistment center was friend of his mother's and told him to go home and not enlist. He told him his mother needed him to stay home until he was drafted. Rans did that and was eventually drafted and sent to Fort Sheridan [Annotator's Note: in Lake Forest, Illinois] to the infantry. Rans was then was sent to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis for basic training and testing. He was with a sergeant and saw a poster for being an aerial gunner. The next day he was sent to Salt Lake City, Utah to radio school. He had been in the Army for six days. He feels lucky to have been taken into the US Army Air Forces instead of the infantry. As a child Rans built model planes, belonged to an airplane club and was interested in aviation. After radio school he went right into gunnery school in Las Vegas, Nevada where he learned to handle the machine guns from backs of trucks and from aircraft. He feels that the training was decent but not as adequate as the training they received overseas with the British. Everything happened so quickly that in a matter of a few months he was flying in B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] and was assigned to a crew that flew their own aircraft overseas. They picked up their aircraft in Topeka, Kansas and flew to Key West, Florida, then to Puerto Rico and finally Dakar, Senegal. They crossed the Atlantic in ten hours and 20 minutes and were only ten minutes off of their target.

Robert Rans' first impression of the B-24 [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] was that it was big. [Annotator's Note: The interview is briefly interrupted by the phone ringing.] He was used to seeing biplanes and Ford Trimotors, but the B-24 was something else altogether. He had a pretty good crew. McGuire [Annotator's Note: First Lieutenant Edward McGuire] was a good pilot and gave everyone a chance to fly the plane in case they had to for any reason. The camaraderie was great between the ten men. They flew to Dakar, Senegal and then Marrakesh, Morocco, just after Rommel [Annotator's Note: German Field marshall Erwin Rommel] had been defeated. There were still burning tanks when they arrived. They then flew to Cairo, Egypt where their aircraft was modified. The crew went to Ismailia, Egypt while waiting. They then flew to Benghazi, Libya [Annotator's Note: Lete Airfield, Benghazi, Libya] and joined their group [Annotator's Note: 415th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force]. Crossing the Atlantic, they were alone due to needed engine repairs in Key West, Florida, which delayed them for a week. The group was 30 planes and were the first replacement B-24s going overseas. The group that crossed first thought that Rans' B-24 had been lost at sea. There were only 200 B-24s in the European Theater of Operations, including their group of 30. At Benghazi there were four men to a tent. It was "colder than hell at night but hot in the day time." Rans recalls standing in the desert at night and hearing cockroaches digging in the sand.

Robert Rans recalls that his first mission was to Messina, Sicily and he remembers being scared as he saw the wall of flak [Annotator's Note: antiaircraft artillery fire] ahead of where they had to turn to make the bomb run. Rans was the second radio operator which made him free to do whatever had to be done other than radio work. He rarely ever fired his guns in the aircraft due to being with the cameras most of the time. After each mission, they were greeted with a drink and a debrief. His job was to explain what he was attempting to capture with his camera from 20,000 to 25,000 feet. It was difficult to know what he was taking pictures of as the cameras were in the bottom hatch and pointing backwards at 45 degrees. [Annotator's Note: Rans pauses and asks the interviewer if he wants to go into the raid and the interviewer says no.] Rans flew three missions and then stopped for two weeks of training for low-level flight with just a five-man, skeleton crew – pilot, copilot, engineer, bombardier, navigator. The rest did not take part in the practice training on a built-out target area in the desert. Each plane had its own objectives for the training mission. Four rows of ten aircraft and one of six planes in the rear. Each plane would have a particular target. His plane's bombs were supposed to go off first. [Annotator's Note: Rans appears to be discussing the the raid he asked about previously.] There had been problems arranging the formations in the air, which caused confusion over the target area with aircraft being hit by explosions from bombs dropped out of order. It was hard to tell which planes were hit by enemy fire. His aircraft was hit by enemy fire.

[Annotator's Note: No mention is made here of the mission being described, however, from later interviews and the interviewer notes it was Operation Tidal Wave, the bombing raid on the oil refineries of Ploesti, Romania on 1 August 1943.] After his aircraft was hit on a raid, Robert Rans only remembers that all he could see was the ground due to being over the cameras. They were on final approach and rising to get over trees and houses so all he could do was look at the cameras to be sure everything was working. He was listening and was to start his filming when he heard the command of bombs away. As he was waiting, he was suddenly covered in gasoline. He saw Fitzpatrick [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant Clark Fitzpatrick, gunner] bail out of the left window and he started to go to bail out. He got to the window when the flames came. Waltman [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant James Waltman, gunner] fell backwards as Rans went out. Rans blacked out and when he came to his chute was open and he was going over wires. Trying to go over the wires he blacked out again. He awoke next in a cornfield, pulling his chute in. He then saw a Romanian peasant with a sickle over him and he did not know what to do. He then heard a voice behind which was a German soldier with a rifle pointed at the Romanian. He surrendered to the German and was taken to a shed. Waltman was at the shed and his skin was hanging of his hands as he had been burned badly.

[Annotator's Note: No mention is made here of the mission being described, however, from later interviews and the interviewer notes it was Operation Tidal Wave, the bombing raid on the oil refineries of Ploesti, Romania on 1 August 1943.] Robert Rans recalls going over the mountains in Yugoslavia when Tate [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant Moses Tate, gunner] got out of his position and put his electric flying suit on over his clothes. On these missions, the aircraft would run into storms over the mountains. On that day this caused the squadrons to get mixed up and broke up the formations. They had to get to 12,000 to 14,000 feet to clear the storm and it was very cold. Rans only had his summer uniform on, so he put his electric suit on as well. Waltman [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant James Waltman, gunner] did not do so and just wrapped himself in a blanket. After they were hit by ground fire over the target and bailed out, Rans's electric suit had burned away. Waltman's clothes were burned away to his skin. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks to step back and describe what he could see coming over the target.] Rans could not see anything due to his position in the aircraft. Jack Ross [Annotator's Note: possibly Technical Sergeant Jack B. Ross of the 93rd Bombardment Group] was in the aircraft next to them and he saw them jump from their plane as it continued to climb. Ross's plane leveled off and got hit. Ross had to bail out. Rans feels that the ground fire hit the auxiliary tanks in their bomb bay which caused gas to leak into the aircraft. Jimmy [Annotator's Note: Waltman] could not bail out of his window because of the flames outside. Fitzpatrick [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant Clark Fitzpatrick, gunner] had gone out the left window first, followed by Rans and Waltman. It was all reaction and not thought. Rans estimates they were raising to 300 feet from corn top level when they bailed out and it is considered suicidal to free fall from that elevation. Rans had numbness in his thigh but no real pain after hitting the ground. Afterwards, he was put in a car with Waltman and taken to an office in Ploesti, Romania where a German officer tried to interrogate him. Rans had big blisters hanging off of his wrists. His gloves had shrunk so much he could not move his fingers and the gloves had to be cut off. His face was burned, and part of his ears were burned off. A doctor saw Rans and said nothing could be done for him. Rans feels that the doctor actually did him a favor as he did not get any infections or bad scars.

[Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks Robert Rans about what sounds he heard after being hit by enemy fire.] Robert Rans says that everything happens so fast in these scenarios, that you do not think. If you think, you die. Rans's aircraft went down into the target area with the five other B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] in his formation [Annotator's Note: from the 415th Bombardment Squadron, 98th Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force]. Only six of the 60 men on those aircraft survived. Rans had been captured and taken to a shed where he was reunited with Waltman [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant James Waltman, gunner]. After being interrogated, Rans does not remember much other than being put into a cage-type jail. He next remembers being in a hospital in Bucharest, Romania for four months. He was in a hospital at Sinaia, Romania as well. Rans had no pain when captured but did not realize how badly he was injured [Annotator's Note: Rans and several of his fellow crew members were severely burned when their aircraft was hit]. His eyes were swollen shut. He heard Fitzpatrick's voice [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant Clark Fitzpatrick, gunner] so he knew he was with him. Fitz had bailed out before the flames came. The care they received was very good. Rans has no scars on his face. He remembers the nurse cleaning his ears, becoming ill and vomiting, when she broke them off while cleaning them. They were as crisp as bacon. [Annotator's Note: Rans laughs at this.] On 1 December 1943 he was sent to the Timisul de Jos Camp [Annotator's Note: Timisil de Jos POW Camp No. 2 and Brasov military hospital, Timisu de Jos, Romania].

Robert Rans was placed in a room with three other wounded prisoners of war at the Timisul de Jos prison camp in Timisu de Jos, Romania. They had straw mattresses, blankets and a wood fire stove and were very comfortable. Russian prisoners of war did all of the cleaning in the camp. The Americans were treated very well under the circumstances. Rans would help his crew member Waltman [Annotator's Note: Staff Sergeant James Waltman, gunner] who was in terrible shape due to being badly burned over most of his body. Their room was called the stinky room due to how much decaying flesh they all had. One of the aircraft on their raid [Annotator's Note: Operation Tadal Wave, the Allied bombing raid on the oil fields of Ploesti, Romania on 1 August 1943] landed on Princess Caradja's property [Annotator's Note: Princess Catherine Olympia Caradja of Romania]. She was the head of what was equivalent to the Red Cross, the Blue Cross. She advocated for the prisoners and made sure they had books and musical instruments. The Romanians battled with the Germans regarding who the 110 prisoners taken that day belonged to and the Romanians won. It was eight months before anymore prisoners would arrive. They were paid the same wages as their equivalent rank in the Romanian army while there. This allowed them to buy food, alcohol, and more. Red Cross packages would arrive each month and would contain three cartons of cigarettes. None of them smoked and they would supply the Russians with them.

While a prisoner of war in Timisu, Romania, Robert Rans was somewhat aware of the significance of the raid on Ploesti [Annotator's Note: Operation Tidal Wave on 1 August 1943] that he had taken part in. The crew were not very aware of what was going on initially. His crew's target was the Romanian-American Refinery. The pilot, bombardier, and navigator were the only ones who knew exactly what the target was. Rans had corresponded with his mother while in the prison camp, but knew more of the progress of the war through a radio the prisoners had. The Russians came through from the Bessarabian front [Annotator's Note: Bessarabia; historical region in Eastern Europe]. Around 11:30 at night, the Russian commander of their camp came and told them they were free and could leave whenever they wanted to. No one knew what to do because they had no actual money since they were paid through accounts. They had no place to go so they decided to stay in the camp until they could make contact with the camp in Bucharest, Romania. There were two British prisoners of war that had made 17 different escapes from camps throughout Europe as well as a Dutch Admiral and his aide. Rans thinks the Admiral was there to negotiate the capitulation of Romania. Once they made contact with Bucharest–five trucks were sent in to get them. They were laid down in the trucks and covered with tarps. They headed south towards Bucharest, while the Germans were headed north. They went to [Annotator's Note: cannot verify town name] in the mountains and stayed there for three or four days for the roads to clear to go to Bucharest. He tells the story of Colonel Gunn [Annotator's Note: US Army Air Forces Lieutenant Colonel James A. Gunn, commander 454th Bombardment Group, 15th Air Force] who flew with a Romanian pilot to Bari, Italy in a Me-109 [Annotator's Note: German Messerschmitt Me-109 fighter aircraft] and negotiated to fly B-17s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber] to get them. Twenty prisoners would get on a plane as it landed, and it would immediately take off. On 1 September 1944, the first 110 prisoners were the first to go. When they landed in Italy, they had to remove their clothes and be de-loused. Rans laughs because he never saw lice in the entire 13 months that he was a prisoner.

Robert Rans says that after being liberated from his prisoner of war camp in Romania, it was an unbelievable feeling to know he was back in friendly hands. There was great fanfare since they were the first liberated prisoners of war. They had to go to Foggia, Italy to get papers and then Naples where they got on the ships to come back to the United States. Coming into New York City and seeing the Statue of Liberty was great. Once he was on the ship to return, he was placed down in the bowels of the ship. Rans did not want to stay there, so he volunteered for KP [Annotator's Note: kitchen police or kitchen patrol] duty and got a top deck bunk. He never did any work for those two weeks. He was treated like a million dollars by the crew. He remembers being in the mess hall after getting off the ship and having German prisoners of war serve them. One person lost control and went after one of the Germans. He remembers just hanging out in New York City and being well received by the civilian population who were not aware they were returning prisoners of war. They received a 30 day family leave. He was then sent to Florida to the Bel Air Hotel on another 30 days rest and relaxation. He then went into the hospital in a large hotel in the Everglades for a time.

Robert Rans was discharged from the US Army Air Forces in 1946. He immediately applied and was accepted at Notre Dame [Annotator's Note: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana] but he couldn't start at the time he wanted, so he went to Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Rans has attended reunions with other Ploesti raiders [Annotator's Note: Operation Tidal Wave, the Allied bombing raid on the oil refineries of Ploesti, Romania on 1 August 1943]. He still feels that he was the luckiest guy in the world because all of his experiences turned out to be good and made his life good. He got an education and a beautiful family. He was just lucky to be a part of the most decorated mission of the war. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him if he knew Colonel John Riley Kane, commander of the 98th Bombardment Group.] Rans has visited Kane's gravesite despite never having had any personal experience with him. He respects him greatly despite the later controversy surrounding his Medal of Honor for the mission. Compton [Annotator's Note: Keith Carl Compton, commander of the 376th Bombardment Group] and his group made a wrong turn. His 46 planes went over the wall of exploding bombs. The others came into targets of opportunity, while Kane stuck with the original plan. Later in life, Rans returned to Romania as part of a sightseeing tour. He tried to find the camp where he had been a prisoner of war, but could not do so. Later he went with a group and did find the camp and the room that he had spent nine months recuperating from his wounds in. He feels that The National WWII Museum is important. He wonders about how much his generation knew of World War 1 other than the immense suffering and the use of poison gas. Knowing what and why we are operating in the world today is helped through learning about World War 2. The advice he would give future prisoners of war is to make the best of it. [Annotator's Note: The interviewer asks him if he has a message for future viewers of the interview.] His message is to love your family, love your country, do what you have to do and have fun doing it. Four or five years ago, Rans came across a picture of himself and others in the hospital after being shot down over Romania and thought it was very precious thing. He asked Bob Sila, head of the Tampa Museum of Art in Tampa, Florida, if he could take pictures of the veterans and was told yes. These veterans were reluctant at first, but he told them to take the pictures, put them in a drawer, and forget about them for 20 years. He says the vets then go ahead and let him take a picture. Rans recalls that he and his fellow prisoners in the camp in Romania, called themselves The Face because all together they made one good face. He was made an honorary member of the Tampa Museum of Art.