Photo By Mark Schauer | U.S. Army Yuma Proving Ground Chaplain (Maj.) Ryan Pearse talks with 103-year-old...... read more read more
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YUMA PROVING GROUND, Ariz.-- A full congregation at the YPG Halo Chapel's Protestant service was enthralled the Sunday before Veterans Day as Chaplain (Maj.) Ryan Pearse chatted with Jimmy Robinson from the pulpit.
The public chats are common for Pearse, but not for his guest, a 103-year-old World War II veteran of the Army Air Corps' 8th Air Force, talking about his experiences in the European Theater.
A mechanic who kept P-51 Mustang fighters flying during the invasion of Normandy, Robinson served in uniform from 1942 to 1948 and numbers among the 0.6% of World War II veterans who are still living.
"I'm so proud I got to serve," Robinson said to the congregation. "I feel so grateful that you people would be here just to talk to me. I feel almost inadequate to do this."
The youngest of 17 children and the last of his sibship living, Robinson grew up in Arkansas and was in Oregon building power lines on Dec. 7, 1941.
The attack on Pearl Harbor is the most noted of that day, but Imperial Japanese Forces were simultaneously attacking the American territory of Guam, the then-American territory of the Philippines, and the-then British territories of Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaya, and also invading Thailand.
A mere 11 days past his 21st birthday, on Monday, Dec. 8, 1941, Robinson attempted to enlist in the Army.
“They said, ‘we don’t know what to do with you, come back in 10 days,’” he recalled. “I said, ‘mom and dad live in Little Rock, I’ll go home and see them and enlist back there.’”
He did so early the next month, and was sent to March Field, Calif.
“When I went into the service, I wanted to see and experience everything I could, so any time they asked for volunteers, I’d do it,” he said.
His volunteer spirit saw him tracking Soviet aircraft in Seattle, working on P-38s at Paine Field in Everett, Wash., then to Pendleton, Ore. where B-17 Replacement Training Units operated. He was next sent to San Raphael, Calif., but desperately wanted to get into the real fight.
“I knew a captain, and I went to him and said I was going to go over the hill if he didn’t get me to an outfit that was going overseas,” he recalled.
He got his wish and was assigned to the 357th Fighter Group, which after training in Tonopah, Nev. and Casper, Wyo. deployed to the European Theater in November 1943. The group sailed to England on the ocean liner-turned-troop transport Queen Elizabeth with 20,000 other Soldiers. Consistent with his cravings for new experiences, Robinson answered the call for volunteers to unload the massive troopship when it arrived.
He was assigned to the group’s 363rd Fighter Squadron, whose pilots included Chuck Yeager, who after the war achieved international fame as the first pilot to break the sound barrier, and Bud Anderson, a triple ace who died earlier this year at age 102.
“We had some of the best pilots of the war,” he said. “I took care of the P-51s and the B-17s.”
In the run-up to the invasion of Normandy, the P-51 Mustangs flown by the group’s pilots served as escorts to bombers and attacked German-controlled airfields, and on D-Day itself flew well over 100 sorties.
“We lost 97 men and had 57 who were prisoners of war, but we also killed 650, so our record was pretty good.”
After his discharge in 1948, he worked on electrical towers at Parker Dam in Ariz., then electrical and telephone wires all over the country, including Alaska.
“It made me a living. I could go anywhere and get a job.”
He first came to the Yuma area in the early 1960s and wound up returning frequently ever since. When a Halo Chapel congregant told Pearse that Robinson frequented the Yuma Foothills AMVETS post, he didn’t want to miss the chance to meet him.
“When I heard he was a World War II vet, I had to meet him,” Pearse said. “I know this could be one of the last opportunities for my kids to meet a World War II veteran. I don’t know if they fully understand or appreciate it yet, but someday they will.”
Robinson’s 104th birthday will be on November 27.
| Date Taken: | 11.12.2024 |
| Date Posted: | 11.12.2024 18:34 |
| Story ID: | 485122 |
| Location: | YUMA PROVING GROUND, ARIZONA, US |
| Web Views: | 52 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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