Robert Andrew Hildebrand was born on April 23, 1922 in Cold Spring (now Highland Heights) Kentucky, the son of Walter and Elizabeth Hildebrand. He attended St. Joseph's Elementary School and then Campbell County High School, graduating in 1940. (His enlistment record states he had only completed grammar school.) He had been employed with the Wadsworth Watch Case Manufacturing Company in Dayton, Kentucky before being drafted and inducted into the U.S. Army on October 27, 1942.

He was sent to Atlantic City, New Jersey to start basic training, but was transferred to the Air Corps and completed basic training at Buckley Field in Denver, Colorado. He was selected to attend aerial gunnery school and was sent to Buckingham Field in Florida. After graduating from this course, he was promoted to Sergeant and assigned to the 18th Replacement Center for combat crew training on the B-17.

In June, 1943, he was sent to Ephrata Field, Washington and assigned to the 589th Bomb Squadron. He was assigned to a crew which then trained as a unit until November 1943, when it deployed to England. There, it was assigned to the 388th Bomb Group as a replacement crew. After more crew training, the crew was assigned to the 561st Bomb Squadron.

Their first combat mission was flown on December 31, 1943. Hildebrand went on to fly 22 combat missions. On May 22, 1944 (archives state 21) the crew was assigned to participate in a raid on Kiel, Germany. Intensive flak was encountered over the target. On the bomb run, three flak shells hit the aircraft, starting a fire in an engine. The pilot dove the aircraft, but could not extinguish the fire. The bail out signal was given, and Hildebrand was the first man out.

All other crew, some wounded by shrapnel, bailed out and survived the drop. However, they were soon rounded up and captured by the Germans. A body, wrapped in a sheet, was loaded on the truck in which the airmen were taken away. The guards would not let them see the body, but some of crew viewed it later. It was Hildebrand, shot through the head by German civilians. The wounded airmen were treated and sent to Stalag III; Hildebrand's body was recovered after the war and buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. He was one of the many brave Americans of the 388th Bomber Group who lost their lives in aerial operations against the German forces from June 1943 - August 1945.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov, airforce.togetherweserved.com