Robert Whelan was born in Buffalo, New York in May 1925 at Millard Fillmore Hospital and grew up in nearby Snyder [Annotator's Note: Snyder, New York] with his parents and younger sister. His parents struggled to support the family during the depths of the Great Depression. His mother worked 12 hour shifts and his father traveled for work while trying to start his own business. Whelan was on his own a lot as a child, although a neighbor did help raise him and his sister. Whelan is fortunate to have grown up during this time because it gave him an outlook on life that he carries with him through today. Nothing was handed to him, he had to work for everything he had and he learned to take "whacks" along the way. He says that he was taught to be patient and wait for things to work out for the better. By the late 1930s, Whelan says he and his friends would listen to Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] speeches using shortwave radios. He says there was a chapter of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi group, in his town and he was familiar with their support of the Nazi movement in America. He can recall "Sieg Heil" salutes in his neighborhood. Whelan cut out a headline from a magazine that read "The One Man Hitler Fears" and pasted it to a picture of himself he had hanging in his bedroom. When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor [Annotator's Note: the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7 December 1941], Whelan was at home reading the Sunday comics in the newspaper when the radio broadcast was interrupted to bring the news. Whelan was aware that Japanese diplomats had been in Washington, D.C. shortly before and said that this was just a distraction. Growing up near the Canadian border in Buffalo, Whelan made friends with Canadian children who had fled London during the Battle of Britain. He says he became caught up with these kids and felt compelled to leave home to join the Royal Canadian Air Force. He says he made it halfway to Toronto [Annotator's Note: Toronto, Ontario, Canada] to volunteer but chickened out and returned home. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Whelan could no longer chicken out and says he knew life was about to change. As a senior in high school, Whelan was recruited by the Army for the ASTP [Annotator's Note: Army Specialized Training Program]. The opportunity to go to college is what convinced him to enlist. On 29 June 1943, Whelan entered the Army. Without offering specifics, Whelan says the Army denied him the opportunity for ASTP training and this offended him greatly. He was sent to Camp Hood, Texas shortly after for basic infantry training. He recalls feelings of boredom and discomfort while in training. He said it was a wholly unpleasant experience, but he had to do it. In April 1944, Whelan was transferred to Camp Bowie, Texas into the 59th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division. He says he enjoyed this training more because he learned a broader scope of information than in basic training.

After training, Robert Whelan and his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company A, 59th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division] boarded a troop train for Camp Kilmer, New Jersey. He recalls passing automobile plants in Detroit [Annotator's Note: Detroit, Michigan] and seeing tanks loaded on railway cars for miles. After ten days on the train, Whelan arrived in New Jersey to await transport overseas. While boarding the ship, he became angry with an Army band playing the "Jersey Bounce" while he was boarding ship to go get shot at. Whelan and his outfit sailed across the Atlantic in a large convoy with the British battleship HMS Nelson traveling directly in front of the Liberty ship [Annotator's Note: a class of quickly produced cargo ship] he was aboard. He says the nights were scary and depth charges [Annotator's Note: an anti-submarine weapon] often shook his bunk all night long. Whelan arrived in Le Havre [Annotator's Note: Le Havre, France] and quickly moved inland. Upon his arrival, Whelan passed a building that he claims to have dreamed of often as a kid. Whelan volunteered to drive a 6x6 truck back and forth from Le Havre to his unit's bivouac [Annotator's Note: a temporary camp] area so that he could pass the familiar building every day; he says he cannot explain the coincidence to this day. Before setting out for combat, Whelan met a young woman in the town where he was stationed whose brother was a member of the French resistance. Whelan says he and the girl became close and took a liking to each other. He invited her to a movie on the night before he was set to leave for the front. When he arrived to pick her up, the girl's parents were dressed up very nicely and he learned they would be escorting the two to the movie screening. The movie was cancelled, and orders were issued to move out. Whelan says the family was very upset about this. When Whelan arrived in Zweibrucken, Germany, he says one of his officers told him he was lucky to have moved out because asking a French girl on a date is like asking her to marry you. Whelan says this was his first escape adventure of the war.

From Zweibrucken [Annotator's Note: Zweibrucken, Germany], Robert Whelan's outfit [Annotator's Note: Company A, 59th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division] advanced to Kassel [Annotator's Note: Kassal, Germany] where they were ordered to proceed to Siegburg [Annotator's Note: Siegburg, Germany] and assist in crushing German resistance in the Ruhr Pocket. From 10 April until 17 April [Annotator's Note: 1945], Whelan was involved in heavy combat in the area around Siegburg. Whelan says there were many dark times during these days that he no longer wishes to remember, but he does remember the good times he had in Siegburg. His squad [Annotator's Note: 1st Squad, 3rd Platoon, Company A] was assigned to cross the Agger River to establish a bridgehead to get their equipment safely across. After a successful mission, they proceeded into an apartment building in Siegburg in search of dry underwear. The only dry underwear were women's. Whelan says he and the other guys wore them gladly and even took more in case they needed a fresh pair later. From Siegburg, Whelan advanced to Kemper [Annotator's Note: Kemper, Germany] where he says they suffered heavy losses. A good friend whose wife had given birth shortly before they were sent overseas was among the dead. Seventy years later, Whelan had the chance to meet the man's son at a reunion of the 13th Armored Division. Whelan says the memories of Kemper did not end in Kemper. Meeting the man's son gave Whelan a total picture of the war and the bonds he formed while in the service. He says these good memories help him to cope with the horrors he witnessed. At the end of the battle on 17 April, Whelan says the 13th Armored Division took over 300,000 German prisoners. After days of trying to kill each other, Whelan was assigned to guard duty and was soon joking and being friendly with the prisoners. He says a newsreel crew came through and set up a camera at the site of where an article of surrender was to be signed. Whelan left his guard post and rushed to get in front of the camera in hopes that his parents would see him and know he was safe. Whelan says he has tried for years to locate the footage without any success. Again, he says it is memories such as this that make the thought of war bearable. The 13th Armored Division was sent to the Bavarian region to join the 3rd Army to prevent a last minute attack by any remaining German units in the field. His unit was stopped at the Austrian border near Hitler's [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] hometown of Braunau, which elements of the 13th Armored captured. Additionally, he says other outfits liberated Stalag XVII-B. He says he did a lot of unadmirable things at the end of the war but says war itself is unadmirable. Shortly after he arrived in Austria, Germany surrendered beginning a two month "vacation" for Whelan. He says it was two months of fraternizing with the natives, drinking their beer, and meeting local women. Orders came to prepare for transport back to the United States to train for the coming invasion of Japan. Before leaving England, Whelan says he had too much to drink and almost missed the boat.

Robert Whelan was able to take a tour through the concentration camp at Dachau [Annotator's Note: Dachau, Germany] before he returned home. The site was appalling to him. The journey home was much better for Whelan. Off the coast of Ireland, some aboard ship tried to explode mines that had surfaced. "They couldn't hit the broadside of a barn," says Whelan and he feared they would get too close to the mines and be blown up. Whelan was assigned to KP [Annotator's Note: Kitchen Patrol or Kithcen Police] duty for the entirety of the journey and had his pay withheld. However, he says he took the 15 dollars of French money he had and turned it into 200 dollars while shooting craps on the deck. Once in the United States, Whelan was given a 30 day delay in route [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a specified period of time] and went home to see his family before reporting to California to train for the invasion of Japan. While home, the atomic bombs were dropped, and the Japanese surrendered. Whelan reported to Camp Cooke, California and received news that he would not be going to Japan. He says his unit [Annotator's Note: Company A, 59th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division] was scheduled to land on Honshu [Annotator's Note: Honshu, Japan] on D+1 and lead the spearhead into Tokyo [Annotator's Note: Tokyo, Japan]. While in California, Whelan got a job supervising German prisoners in the service club kitchens. He says he earned Army pay and service club pay. In October [Annotator's Note: October 1945], the 13th Armored Division disbanded, and Whelan was transferred to the 20th Armored Division and given a 45 day furlough [Annotator's Note: an authorized absence for a short period of time]. Upon his return, Whelan says many men had begun to protest their inability to be discharged. Rather than risk the protest spilling over into the press, Whelan says the division commanders issued discharges in February 1946. Whelan says this was the end of his Army life until 2013. Whelan immediately took advantage of the G.I. Bill and attended the University of Buffalo where he studied business administration.

Robert Whelan's most memorable experience of the war came in Siegburg [Annotator's Note: Siegburg , Germany] on 30 April 1945 when he volunteered to transport a group of 20 Prisoners of War to the 80th Infantry Division. After hours of searching and being unable to find a barn where he was supposed to bring the prisoners, Whelan grew desperate until he found three men from the 80th Division who took the prisoners off his hands. Whelan, totally lost at this time, confiscated a motorcycle from a terrified German soldier and managed to find his way back to his outfit [Annotator's Note: Company A, 59th Armored Infantry Battalion, 13th Armored Division] just before dark. Whelan says he fought in World War 2 because he knew Hitler [Annotator's Note: German dictator Adolf Hitler] had to be stopped; although he signed up to get a college education and not to fight, he says he fought because that was what had to be done. Whelan says World War 2 changed his life in 2013 when members of the 13th Armored Division became his family and support system following the death of his wife. He says nothing is more important than continuing to teach World War 2 and the importance of service to future generations.