Robert Thomas Hall was born in Indiana in 1921. His parents were Thomas Edgar 'Ed' Hall (14 Dec 1876 – 17 Oct 1956), who was born on a farm in Ripley Township, Montgomery County, Indiana; and Mary Josephine (McMains) Hall (14 Dec 1881 – 15 Sep 1963), who was born at Rossville, Ross Township, Vermillion County, Illinois. His father was a farmer, and also worked as an inspector at a motor factory; his mother served as a nurse in World War I. His parents married at Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana on December 14, 1919. Robert Hall had a younger brother, Charles Franklin Hall (11 Feb 1924 – 13 Jul 2010). In 1930 the family lived on a farm in Sugar Creek Township, Parke County, Indiana. By 1940 the family lived on a farm in Ripley Townhship, Montgomery County, Indiana, just south of Waynetown.
His hometown was Waynetown, Montgomery County, Indiana. He completed four years of high school and worked as a farm hand. He was single, without dependents, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, on August 26, 1940. He completed Army Air Forces pilot training in Class 43-H, and received his wings and officer's commission on August 30, 1943. He was then assigned as a heavy bomber pilot in the 838th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group. The crew of then Second Lieutenant Hall completed B-24 combat crew training with the 487th Bomb Group at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico, and deployed with the Group to England in March 1944. The Hall crew flew B-24H 42-52771 overseas via the southern Atlantic ferry route—a journey of about 10,000 miles—and arrived in England by mid-April 1944. The 487th Bomb Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137, near the village of Lavenham, Suffolk, England, and was part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe.
He became a lead pilot, and completed a 30-mission combat tour with the 487th Bomb Group, flying both the B-24 and the B-17 heavy bombers. Then he volunteered for a second tour flying fighter aircraft on weather reconnaissance missions. He was still assigned to the 487th Bomb Group, but was put on detached service with the 3rd Scouting Force, which was located with the 55th Fighter Group at Army Air Forces Station 159 near Wormingford, England. There he flew P-51 weather reconnaissance missions in support of the bomber force. On January 18, 1945, Captain Hall took off from Wormingford in P-51D 44-14278 on a weather scouting mission, and vanished. He probably went down in the North Sea and remains missing in action.
His name is inscribed on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery near Madingley, England. He also has a cenotaph at Waynetown Masonic Cemetery in Waynetown, Montgomery County, Indiana.
Source of information: Paul M. Webber, www.findagrave.com, www.abmc.gov