Robert Stoops was born in May 1919 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He moved around to several military installations until 1936 when he started college. His father was a Naval officer. His mother did not work. His father served from before World War 1 until sometime in the 1940s. You only make acquaintances as you go along. He made some friends in Charleston [Annotator's Note: Charleston, South Carolina] in high school. He was at Georgia Tech [Annotator's Note: Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia] after that and some of those people were friends until they died. The Depression hit the Navy hard and pay was cut. He remembers it really hurt his dad. Stoops was on the rifle or pistol team at whatever school he attended. He learned to sail in Charleston. After high school, he went to Kenyon College [Annotator's Note: Gambier, Ohio] for one year, MIT [Annotator's Note: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts] for one year, and Georgia Tech for three years. He was interested in physics, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering. He liked building and making things. He was working when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941]. He worked until 1942. His eyes were too bad to be eligible to be an officer, but he got a letter that appointed him to Lieutenant and told him to report to Fort Sam Houston [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas].

Robert Stoops reported to Fort Sam Houston [Annotator's Note: San Antonio, Texas] for one month and then went to Camp Swift, Texas where he joined the 263rd Ordnance Medium Maintenance Company. His boss back home kept his job for him. Stoops feels he was a very poor officer because he was not a people person. He is a mechanical person. His company was in charge of supplying parts for, and repairing, all of the armaments, vehicles, and optics used by the various services. He went to Ordinance School in Maryland [Annotator's Note: Aberdeen Proving Ground] for basic training and supply training. He did not like the supply part of the business; he preferred the maintenance. He had sergeants who learned that very quickly and they took care of most of it. One he had was an expert on the paperwork and yet he had only finished the third grade in school. He was promoted to Warrant Officer. He was extremely smart and a wonderful person to have work for him.

Robert Stoop went by ship to Milne Bay, New Guinea. They [Annotator's Note: Stoop and the 263th Ordinance Medium Maintenance Company] were fully equipped to do all necessary maintenance on the equipment there. They had people who could do most anything, so they made their living conditions as comfortable as possible. It was a big base that distributed supplies from there. This was September 1943. Stoop went on liaison to the 2nd Marine Division on Goodenough Island and spent a month there. They were getting ready for the invasion of New Britain [Annotator's Note: New Guinea]. On Thanksgiving Day [Annotator's Note: 25 November 1943], he got on a small ship that became disabled and they spent the day moored offshore. They went to Oro Bay [Annotator's Note: Oro Bay, New Guinea] after that until January 1944. Then they were at Cape Gloucester, New Britain for a year and backed up the 2nd Marine Division and an Army Cavalry Division. Rabaul was on the opposite end of the island. The Japanese aircraft were based there and gave them some trouble before being taken. In January 1945, they went to Lingayen Gulf on Mindanao, Philippines. He stayed there until June when he went to the Unitrd States for R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and recuperation]. While he was traveling back, the bombs were dropped [Annotator's Note: Nuclear weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, 6 and 9 August 1945] so he never went back to the war.

Robert Stoop was discharged in January 1946 as a First Lieutenant. He did not want to stay in as he had a good job waiting for him. He liked working in New Orleans [Annotator's Note: New Orleans, Louisiana]. He had started out as a lab assistant at International Lubricant Company, the second largest in the United States at that time. Shell Oil bought them in the 1940s. He worked for them for 40 years and retired in January 1982. He tried doing some engineering after he retired. He worked for Shell on and off for a couple of years supervising construction. He was Chief Engineer at International Lubricant during a lot of new building.

Robert Stoop figures he did his job and his duty during the war. He feels he was not the best officer, but did what had to be done and as well as he could. There were so many stupid things that went on, and so many good things, it is hard for him to say what was most memorable. They had a 70 pound anvil in the machine shop they set out in the yard. Two Marines stole it from them. He thinks it was a gag, but he never saw it again. There were no natives that would have wanted an anvil. The Navy had a landing craft with twin engines, but they did not have a supply of clutches for them. Whenever they needed one, they would trade a five gallon bucket of ice cream for it. Stoop feels that World War 2 means nothing to America today. Youngsters have no idea about what went on. Stoop feels the war was much tougher on the civilians than the military in many ways. Necessities were rationed. A lot of women went to work in those days. A lot of men got out of serving by various means. Some went to Canada. More did that during the Vietnam War. Stoop thinks the museum [Annotator's Note: The National WWII Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana] does a great job. He goes to each opening of new exhibits. He uses an electric scooter to get around. He enjoys the supper and the shows about once a year. It is a great benefit to New Orleans.