Robert “Bobby” McKinley Brewer Jr. (March 5, 1926-March 30, 1945)

861st Bombardment Squadron, 493rd Bombardment Group, 8th Air Force

By April Tibbetts and Brendan Jordan

Early Life

Robert “Bobby” McKinley Brewer Jr. was born on March 5, 1926 in Fort Myers, FL to Edna and Robert Brewer Sr.¹ Bobby, his parents’ oldest child, had two sisters and one brother, Gloria (born 1928), Janice (born 1934), and Edgar (born 1943).² His mother, Edna (née Whidden), was a Florida native; her parents, William Whidden and Margaret Powell, were second-generation settlers to North Fort Myers.³

Edna’s paternal great-grandfather, James Whidden, originally of Georgia, became an early settler of the Peace River Valley in Polk County, FL. In 1849, he and his family illegally occupied a neutral zone that the US government had established as a buffer between Native Americans and white settlers.⁴ During this period, tensions between the US and Native Americans in Florida continued to intensify. Between the 1810s and 1850s, the US military fought three violent conflicts with the Seminole Tribe in Florida, collectively known as the Seminole Wars. The wars resulted in the forced removal of thousands of Seminoles to territory west of the Mississippi River. Some Seminole warriors, however, continued to resist, going deeper into the Everglades. The removal of so many Seminoles facilitated white control and opened more of the peninsula to white agricultural settlement, including by people like James Whidden and his family.⁵

Edna’s family served in several wars and remained politically active in Florida during the nineteenth century. James Whidden participated in the Second and Third Seminole Wars as an infantryman.⁶ Edna’s paternal grandfather, Elias Whidden, served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War as a Private in the 1st Florida Cavalry Regiment.⁷ Her maternal grandfather, John Powell, sat on the original commission board for Lee County, FL.⁸ The Powells moved to Florida in 1867, shortly after the Civil War, following crop failure in their native South Carolina.⁹ The area they settled, initially known as Powell’s Settlement, now bears the name New Prospect, near North Fort Myers, FL. When the Powell family lived there, they cultivated orange groves on the land.¹⁰

Bobby’s father, Robert Sr., was born in Arkansas on June 13, 1900 to William M. and Amanda E. (née Henderson) Brewer.¹¹ Amanda, initially of Tennessee, married William in Arkansas in 1881. She was fourteen years old and he was twenty-three.¹² William worked as a farmer to provide for his large family, which by 1910 included Robert Sr. and eight additional children. Sometime before 1910, the family relocated to Texas.¹³

On September 12, 1918, just two months before the First World War ended, Robert Sr. registered for the draft, though he did not serve in the military.¹⁴ At the time of his registration, he lived at a permanent address in New Mexico, though he worked at an ammunition factory for the US government based in Nashville, TN, contributing to the war effort at home. His parents remained in Texas.¹⁵ Following the war, Robert Sr. relocated to Florida, where he met Edna. The two married in Lee County, FL on February 10, 1924.¹⁶ The young couple moved homes a few times before settling in New Prospect in April 1925.¹⁷ There, they welcomed their son Bobby in March 1926.

In 1930, when Bobby reached four years old, Robert Sr. worked as a carpenter to support the growing family while Edna worked in the home and helped raise her children. By this time, the family had welcomed Bobby’s younger sister, Gloria.¹⁸ The Great Depression, which began after the stock market collapsed in October 1929, greatly affected many Floridians. Though the economy in Florida began to decline following two major hurricanes in 1926 and 1928, which hurt the state’s growing tourism and agricultural industries, the global depression further worsened the financial situations for many Floridians.¹⁹ Despite this, by 1935, Robert Sr. had transitioned into strawberry farming, and had relocated his family to Hillsborough County.²⁰ One of the largest agricultural producing areas for strawberries in the state at the time, Hillsborough County became especially known for the fruit. Following the devastation of citrus crops during the Great Freeze of 1894-1895, strawberries became a popular and dependable crop to grow in the region. In the 1930s, strawberries grown within the county accounted for three-fourths of Florida’s total production of the fruit.²¹

The Brewers remained close with Edna’s side of the family throughout this period, as the Whiddens lived in New Prospect as well. In 1930, they lived just a few streets away from the Brewers.²² This provided a large support system for Bobby and his siblings, since his grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins typically attended family events such as birthdays and dinners. In March 1944, his extended family honored him at a chicken dinner in Fort Myers, FL.²³ By the time Bobby turned fourteen in 1940, he continued to attend school, and may have also worked alongside his father farming strawberries.²⁴

Bobby's Draft Registration Card

By 1944, Bobby worked as a Post Engineer at Paige Field airstrip in Lee County, FL. During this period, he lived with his uncle, Charles H. Rosser Jr., his aunt, Penelope (née Whidden), and his cousins, Helen and Herbert. The Rossers lived in Lee County, close to the Paige Field airstrip. On March 6, 1944, Bobby registered for the draft for the Second World War, then raging across the Atlantic, as seen on his registration card here.²⁵ A little over a month later, on April 17, Bobby and fifty-one fellow draftees went to Camp Blanding, near Starke, FL, for pre-induction examination.²⁶

Military Service

At just eighteen years old, Bobby arrived at Camp Blanding as one of the youngest draftees within his group.²⁷ Camp Blanding became a US Army training center in 1940, after it signed a lease with the Florida National Guard.²⁸ From there, Bobby formally enlisted at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, GA on May 19, 1944.²⁹ The Army designated him for service within its Air Force (AAF).³⁰ As part of its training, the AAF subjected airmen to a battery of tests to determine their best placement within the service. It also considered the individual's physical build.³¹ Likely due to his mechanical aptitude and his short stature of five feet, six inches, the AAF designated Bobby as a ball turret gunner for the B-17 Flying Fortress.³² Operation of the ball turret often went to smaller airmen, as it required them to fold into the fetal position inside of a plexiglass sphere on the underside of the aircraft. The ball turret could rotate 360 degrees via an electro-hydraulic system, which allowed the gunner to protect the B-17 against attacks from below.³³ Boeing produced over twelve thousand B-17 Flying Fortresses during World War II. The US utilized them to fly extensive bombing raids over both the European and Pacific Theaters. B-17s could sustain extensive damage while they delivered heavy bomb payloads. The aircrafts also boasted up to thirteen machine guns for defense. While some of the crew, like Bobby, operated designated gun positions full time, others manned certain gun positions only when under attack from enemy aircraft.³⁴

After training stateside, Bobby deployed to a Royal Air Force (RAF) airfield in Debach, England, as part of the 861st Bombardment Squadron, 493rd Bombardment Group, of the 8th US AAF, which operated out of Debach.³⁵ The unit remains the last group activated under the 8th Air Force, flying their first mission during the D-Day landings at Normandy, France on June 6, 1944. The 493rd nicknamed themselves ‘Helton’s Hellcats,’ for their commanding officer, Colonel Elbert Helton.³⁶ The 493rd contained four bombardment squadrons, the 860th, 861st, 862nd, and 863rd.³⁷ The group assigned Bobby to work aboard the B-17s in the 861st Bombardment Squadron.³⁸ Given his time training, Bobby likely joined the squadron in late 1944 or early 1945, and shortly thereafter reached the rank of sergeant.³⁹

On March 30, 1945, the 493rd flew its 141st mission. Bobby and a crew of eight additional airmen flew in a mass formation of B-17s on a mission to further weaken the infrastructure of the German military. His crew consisted of 2nd Lt. Russell A. Goodspeed, 1st Sgt. George Constandakis, Sgt. Frank E. Lee, Sgt. Haskell Newman, Sgt. Clinton E. Halverson, 2nd Lt. Roger D. Laib, 2nd Lt. Harold G. Teter, and Sgt. Harry N. Davis.⁴⁰ Their targets included a submarine pen and an oil storage depot in Hamburg, Germany.⁴¹ During the mission, Bobby’s aircraft sustained damage to its fourth engine after getting hit with flak. 2nd Lt. Goodspeed attempted to pilot the B-17 back toward friendly territory, hoping to land at Little Walden Airbase in Essex, England, but the damage proved too great. Within a mile of the airfield, the B-17 crashed.⁴²

The Battle Casualty Report for Bobby and his Crewmates

Six of the nine men aboard lost their lives, including 2nd Lt. Goodspeed, 1st Sgt. Constandakis, Sgt. Lee, Sgt. Newman, Sgt. Halverson, and Sgt. Robert “Bobby” McKinley Brewer Jr., all seen here on the Battle Casualty Report from that day.⁴³ 2nd Lt. Laib, 2nd Lt. Teter, and Sgt. Davis survived the crash, bailing out over the city of Bartlow, in the UK.⁴⁴ 2nd Lt. Laib later recounted the accident in a letter home to his parents in Cincinnati, OH. In April 1945, the local newspaper in Cincinnati reported the details of this letter, relating Laib’s account that as the men congratulated themselves upon their arrival over England, another of the bomber’s engines failed, forcing the plane out of the sky.⁴⁵ The 493rd lost three aircraft during this operation. Including Bobby and his fallen crew, thirteen total Allied servicemen lost their lives during the mission.⁴⁶

Legacy

Nearly a month after this incident, on April 20, 1945, the 493rd Bombardment Group went on its last combat mission. As a group, the 493rd completed 157 bombing missions over the course of World War II. Though they began flying the larger B-24 bombers, by the final years of the war the 493rd employed B-17s due to the US military’s belief that the B-17 had a better chance of staying aloft after receiving damage from enemy fire.⁴⁷ Forty-one aircraft from the 493rd went missing in action throughout the Second World War, and more than two hundred airmen stationed at Debach perished in the conflict. In early May 1945, on the eve of Germany’s surrender, the 493rd Bombardment Group flew six mercy missions in Holland, providing hundreds of tons in food and supplies for troops in the Netherlands. Later that month, after the war in Europe ended, the group assisted in repatriating nearly two thousand British and French POWs in four revival missions.⁴⁸ 2nd Lt. Laib, 2nd Lt. Teter, and Sgt. Davis, the surviving men from Bobby’s crew, returned to the US and went on to live long lives after the war, carrying on the memory of their fallen comrades.⁴⁹

Bobby’s fellow servicemen initially laid him to rest in Cambridge Cemetery, in England, which later became the American Battle Monuments Commission’s Cambridge American Cemetery.⁵⁰ Following the war, the US government instituted the Return of World War II Dead Program. This program gave the families of Veterans killed overseas the option to repatriate their loved ones’ remains to the US, if they wished, so they could rest closer to home.⁵¹ On July 20, 1948, Robert Sr., as his son’s next of kin, decided to return Bobby’s remains to Florida. Robert M. Brewer Jr. now rests among his fellow Veterans in St. Augustine National Cemetery, section D, site 174.⁵²

For his valiant service, Bobby earned a Purple Heart, the World War II Victory Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the Army Presidential Unit Citation, and the Army Good Conduct Medal.⁵³ A number of memorials immortalize him and his compatriots in the USAAF. A 493rd Bomb Group marker stands near the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum in Pooler, GA, within walking distance of several other markers dedicated to various bomb groups.⁵⁴ An additional memorial to the 493rd remains in the Memorial Park of the National Museum of the US Air Force in Dayton, OH, and another stands in the US Air Force Academy Cemetery in Colorado Springs, CO.⁵⁵ Additionally, St. Mary the Virgin Church in Suffolk, England, about twenty miles from the airbase in Debach, honors the 493rd with an honor roll list of all those who died while stationed at Debach.⁵⁶ In the years after the war, the city of Debach erected a plaque dedicated to all those who served as part of the group beside the entrance to the city.⁵⁷ At the Debach airfield, city officials also dedicated a granite tablet monument featuring the emblem for the 493rd.⁵⁸ Additionally, the All Saints Church Cemetery in the city now houses a memorial for the group open to the public.⁵⁹

By 1950, Bobby’s family had relocated to Volusia County, FL, where his parents, Robert Sr. and Edna, had retired. His sister, Janice, and brother, Edgar, both remained in school.⁶⁰ Twelve years later, in 1962, the family returned to Fort Myers, FL, where Bobby had been born. Robert Sr. passed away there in 1969, at the age of sixty-eight.⁶¹ Edna passed away in 1992, aged eighty-seven, leaving behind her children, six grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.⁶² Bobby’s sister Gloria joined her departed family in 2011, aged eighty-three.⁶³ She and her mother now rest in New Prospect Cemetery, in North Fort Myers, FL, while Robert Sr. now rests at Fort Myers Cemetery, across the Caloosahatchee river.⁶⁴

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