Robert Frederick Reed was born in January 1921 on a farm near Rochester, Indiana where he lived for his first 18 years of life. He became interested in aviation as a young child. His first airplane ride was on a Ford Trimotor when he was ten years old. He was a product of the Depression [Annotator's Note: the Great Depression was a global economic depression that lasted from 1929 through 1939 in the United States]. They had plenty of food, living on a farm, but no money. His grandparents raised him for a while. His grandmother saved for three months to buy him a cowboy outfit. At an early age, Reed began doing tractor work on the farm until he graduated high school. It was a dairy farm that also grew grain, wheat, corn, and soy beans. Reed attended a little country high school with only 13 people in his graduating class. He was the only one that went on to college. He had dreams of becoming a pilot. He left the farm when he was around 18 or 19, and got a job at a factory in Mishawaka, Indiana until Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He was getting ready to go to work when he heard about the attack, but no one knew where Pearl Harbor was. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in February 1942 and was sent to San Diego, California [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego in San Diego, California] by train for boot camp. After that, he was given tests and was assigned to Marine aviation and sent to radio school in North Island [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station North Island in San Diego, California] in San Diego. Then he was shipped to Norfolk, Virginia for five more months of radio school where he learned Morse code and semaphore. He was then sent back across the country and assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station in El Centro, California, His assignment was working in the control tower. He did not use any of the code he learned in his nine months of training. Reed volunteered for navigator bombardier school. There was a height restriction of six feet, and as Reed was six foot two, he bent his knees and lowered his neck so he would seem shorter. He was sent to Quantico, Virginia for navigator bombardier school. It was all ground school, no flying was involved. His first assignment after graduating was to a B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25, or PBJ, Mitchell medium bomber] squadron [Annotator's Note: Marine Bombing Squadron 612 (VMB-612)]. On his first flight, as the plane rumbled, all Reed could think was about how his height had been dismissed and what a fool he was for volunteering. [Annotator's Note: Reed smiles.] That first flight was 35 miles. He drew a course line and figured out the wind drift. He ended up throwing up on that flight.

After being assigned to a squadron [Annotator's Note: as a navigator in Marine Bombing Squadron 612 (VMB-612), a North American B-25, or PBJ, Mitchell medium bomber squadron], Robert Frederick Reed learned to use a modified Norden bombsight while training over the Atlantic Ocean. They were moved to Key West, Florida [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Key West in Key West, Florida] where they practiced dropping torpedoes. They were given a weekend of leave [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time] before being shipped overseas. He volunteered for a flight to Cherry Point [Annotator's Note: Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in Havelock, North Carolina] and Saint Louis [Annotator's Note: St. Louis, Missouri] to pick up replacement parts. The cloud cover was heavy, and Reed was unable to pinpoint where they were. They went in the wrong direction so far that they ended up having to bail out and landed in a corn field. Reed and two of the enlisted men headed for a nearby farmhouse, and the people there said they nearly shot them because they thought they were enemy paratroopers. The crew got together and were taken to an Air Force base in Missouri, where they remained for almost a week before another plane was sent to pick them up. That plane also had problems and was grounded. By the time they finally got back to Key West, the Colonel was so upset with them that he transferred the pilot out of the squadron and was going to transfer Reed out since he was the navigator, but another pilot in the squadron said he would take Reed as his navigator as long as he took a seven-hour navigation flight over the Gulf of Mexico.

Robert Frederick Reed's squadron [Annotator's Note: Marine Bombing Squadron 612 (VMB-612)] did training dropping torpedoes. The torpedoes were set to go underneath a ship, but during one run the torpedo surfaced. In the Marine Corps, there were two crews for every airplane. They flew from Key West, Florida [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Key West in Key West, Florida] to San Diego, California where the planes were put on an aircraft carrier which brought them to Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Pearl Harbor, Hawaii]. It was a small, top-heavy escort carrier and would rock back and forth, making Reed deathly ill. In Pearl Harbor, the colonel decided they did not have enough experience for long-range navigation at night. The Navy had a celestial Link Trainer [Annotator's Note: a type of flight simulator] which they practiced on. They left Pearl Harbor, stopping at Johnston Island before arriving on Majuro Island [Annotator's Note: Majuro Island, Marshall Islands]. The latter part of the flight was 1,100 miles over open water, so Reed had to use a sun line to navigate. They left Majuro for Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Eniwetok or Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands] where they received orders to go to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands]. When they arrived, the second crew was assigned the first flight solely because that crew's pilot had one month more experience than Reed's pilot. The crew took off, the first time it took off without Reed aboard, and never came back. They do not know what happened to them. The squadron flew missions out of Saipan for three or four months before moving to Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan]. The missions off Saipan usually lasted around 11 hours. One night, coming back from Iwo Jima, they had been flying for five or six hours in overcast conditions, so Reed had to use dead reckoning. They were 75 miles off course, then 110 miles off course. The pilot had to trust Reed a lot to change course so significantly, but they eventually got everything straightened out and got back to Saipan okay.

Robert Frederick Reed found that flying near Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan] was traumatic, knowing that if they had to bail out, the Japs [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] would get them and that would be the end of it. They [Annotator's Note: Reed, his crew, and the other members of Marine Bombing Squadron 612 (VMB-612) based on Saipan at the time] were targeting Japanese freighters. They had four rockets on each wing [Annotator's Note: of their North American B-25, or PBJ, Mitchell medium bomber]. They were down at 300 feet making a run at a freighter near Iwo Jima when all the searchlights on the island came on, and Reed saw a formation of B-24s [Annotator's Note: Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bomber] at 15,000 feet preparing a bombing run on Iwo Jima. Reed's unit later moved from Saipan to a base on Iwo Jima from which they would strike the Japanese coast. Then they moved to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. Reed flew his last mission two days before the war ended. Their operations officer gave them a briefing before they left on their mission, and explained that they expected the war to end at any minute, and that they would radio if anything happened while they were in the air on their ten hour mission. However, the pilot said they were going to turn off every radio in the plane and that they were not coming back until they found a ship and got rid of their rockets. In addition to the eight rockets on the wings, they were experimenting with a rocket called Tiny Tim [Annotator's Note: 11.75 inch Tiny Tim air to ground rocket], which had an 1,100-pound bomb head. They found a ship, fired four rockets, and got a hit. The pilot was ecstatic. They made another run, firing the remaining four rockets, hitting several ships. Two Tiny Tim rockets remained. Their plane got hit, but then they realized it was the two rockets which had gone off prematurely, badly shaking the plane. The war ended two days after that mission, and they were assigned the job of ferrying personnel into Japan. In doing so, Reed flew over Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan] and saw all the damage done by the firebombing. It was unbelievable unless you saw it with your own eyes. On another ferrying trip, he saw Nagasaki [Annotator's Note: Nagasaki, Japan] and the damage caused by the atomic bombs [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945].

While Robert Frederick Reed was stationed in El Centro [Annotator’s Note: El Centro, California before being deployed overseas], he was working as a control tower operator when some fighter pilots [Annotator's Note: in Grumman F4F Wildcats] were practicing. Reed would ask them to rock their wings to ensure they were hearing communications. When they were in Key West, Florida [Annotator's Note: Naval Air Station Key West in Key West, Florida], the officers flew to Havana, Cuba and bought rum, hiding it in a Red Cross crate. Reed and some friends found it and took it. When Reed was overseas, he had a pet monkey. An Army man had taken it from a Jap [Annotator's Note: a period derogatory term for Japanese] officer and was selling it for 150 dollars, but the monkey was so mean that no one could handle it and the Army man would buy it back for half the price. Reed had to tie the monkey to a tree because he was so mean. Eventually, after he brought the monkey food and water for about a week and they got to know each other, Reed could take him for a walk. When the monkey picked up a ball from a baseball game and Reed tried to take it from him to return it to the players, the monkey lunged at him and ripped his shirt. Reed hit him and the monkey became docile, and would sit on his shoulder. When they left for Iwo Jima, Reed could not take the monkey with him so he sold it to one of the officers whom he had stolen the rum from. One thing about the Marine Corps is that the pilots were officers, but the crew were enlisted men.

Robert Frederick Reed's unit trained with rockets in Hawaii, after having trained for bombing and torpedoes. Reed served with Marine Bombing Squadron 612 (VMB-612). From Hawaii, they went to Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands] after a month at Eniwetok [Annotator's Note: Eniwetok or Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands]. Saipan was a beautiful island. Years later, Reed was a pilot examiner for the FAA [Annotator's Note: Federal Aviation Administration]. Lieutenant Balthrop [Annotator's Note: US Marine Corps First Lieutenant Samuel Christian Balthrop] and his copilot were injured in November 1944. Later, while flying off Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan], the weather conditions were foggy with no visibility. They established one of the first ground control approach radars in the Pacific on Iwo Jima, and they practiced using this radar for landings with ground control directing the planes down. One night, there were three planes out and when Balthrop tried landing using this radar, he missed the runway and killed the whole crew. The other two planes had to ditch off the island because they could not make it to land. Reed carried a silver dollar with him throughout his service as a good luck piece. While serving in the Pacific, the Japanese never fired at them until the Marines released their rockets. Sometimes they flew as low as 50 feet off the water to get away from enemy fire.

Robert Frederick Reed was stationed at Kagman Point while on Saipan [Annotator's Note: Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands]. On Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan], they [Annotator's Note: the Marines of Marine Bombing Squadron 612 (VMB-612)] shared a base with P-51s [Annotator's Note: North American P-51 Mustang fighter aircraft] which followed B-29s [Annotator's Note: Boeing B-29 Superfortress very heavy bomber] into Japan. The terrain on Iwo consisted of a lot of volcanic ash that was difficult to walk through. The Seabees [Annotator's Note: members of US naval construction battalions] put up a temporary road up to Mount Suribachi [Annotator's Note: the highest point of Iwo Jima] in a matter of hours. In April 1945 while at Kagman Point, the Japanese carried out a daylight raid. There was a P-47 [Annotator's Note: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft] flying slowly by and was shot down by friendly fire. The unit moved to Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan] shortly before the war ended. Kamikazes were still operating in the area. [Annotator's Note: There is a break in the interview to change tapes.]

Robert Frederick Reed only flew one daylight mission while serving overseas, all the others were at night using celestial navigation. On Iwo Jima [Annotator's Note: Iwo Jima, Japan], they got an order from Guam [Annotator's Note: Guam, Mariana Islands] that all available planes were to strike an airfield in Japan from which kamikazes were hitting the US fleet off Okinawa [Annotator's Note: Okinawa, Japan]. One of the planes in the squadron decided to land at Okinawa rather than go all the way back to Iwo Jima. They met a flight of F4U fighter planes [Annotator's Note: Vought F4U Corsair fighter aircraft] which made several passes at the B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25, or PBJ, Mitchell medium bomber]. The copilot and tail gunner bailed out when the plane caught on fire, and the pilot ditched the plane. Three men were rescued, but the two who bailed out were never found. It was shot down by friendly fire because the Japanese had captured a B-25, and it was suspected that it was being used as a kamikaze. Reed was on Okinawa when he heard about the atomic bomb [Annotator's Note: nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945]. The night the second atomic bomb was dropped, they had a mission and were ordered to stay 50 miles away from Nagasaki, not knowing why at the time, but later finding out it was because the bomb was going to be dropped. Everybody was happy when the war ended. A lot of the men went home, but Reed had to stay another month transferring personnel. He had planned on going to medical school after the war. In the Marine Corps, there was very little socialization between officers and enlisted men. Reed found out years later that his pilot also went to medical school, and they both became family physicians. When Reed got home, he got his old job at a factory [Annotator's Note: in Mishawaka, Indiana] back until school started. He did not find it that hard to readjust to civilian life. He used the G.I. Bill [Annotator's Note: the G.I. Bill, or Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was enacted by the United States Congress to aid United States veterans of World War 2 in transitioning back to civilian life and included financial aid for education, mortgages, business starts and unemployment] to go to school at Manchester College [Annotator's Note: now Manchester University in Fort Wayne, Indiana] for premed, then Indiana University. He was a family practice doctor from 1953 until he retired. He is 94 years old now [Annotator's Note: at the time of the interview.]

Robert Frederick Reed's time in the service made him wonder why we were at war all the time, with World War 2, the Korean War [Annotator's Note: Korean War, 25 June 1950 to 27 July 1953], the Vietnam War [Annotator's Note: Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, 1 November 1955 to 30 April 1975], and others. Reed grew up just 25 years after World War 1 [Annotator's Note: World War 1, global war originating in Europe; 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918] and learned a lot about it, so Reed is surprised that young people today do not seem to know much about World War 2. He wrote a book about his wartime experiences, mostly for his children so that they would know about what went on.