Robert Lyman Wasson was born at Franklin Grove, Lee County, Illinois on November 3, 1918. He was one of four children of Winn Sprague Wasson (22 Jan 1881 – 11 Dec 1937), who was born at Amboy, Lee County, Illinois; and Blanche Edessa (Virgil) Wasson (21 May 1886 – 21 Nov 1971), who was born at Dixon, Lee County, Illinois. His parents married at Amboy, Illinois on December 9, 1911. His siblings were Virgil A. Wasson (10 Apr 1914 – 11 Sep 2005), who was born at Amboy, Illinois; Elizabeth Annette 'Betty' (Wasson) Mickey (31 Oct 1919 – 27 Sep 2000); and Richard Eugene Wasson (21 Aug 1931 – 20 Jan 1975).

His father worked for a time as a railroad engineer at Lee Center, Lee County, Illinois. By September 1918 his parents lived at Franklin Grove, Lee County, Illinois, where his father and his father's brother, Arthur Guy Wasson, owned and operated Wasson Brothers Garage. His father was an automobile mechanic and salesman; he died at Franklin Grove, Illinois in 1937, and is buried in the family plot at Prairie Repose Cemetery in Amboy, Illinois.

Robert Wasson graduated from Franklin Grove High School in 1936, where he played on the basketball team, and worked as a steam cook and foreman in an asparagus canning factory, and as a motor vehicle mechanic. He served as a seaman in the Merchant Marine in 1939–1940. He registered for the draft at Amboy, Illinois on October 16, 1940. He was 6 feet tall, weighed 150 pounds, and had brown eyes and black hair. He was single, without dependents, when he enlisted in the U.S. Army at Chicago, Cook County, Illinois on March 19, 1941. He married Dee S. (Mathieson) Wasson later that year. In 1944 his wife lived at 1310 South Rimpau Boulevard, Los Angeles, California.

He completed Army Air Forces pilot training in Class 43-G at Stockton Army Air Field, California, and received his wings and commission on July 28, 1943. He was then assigned as copilot on the heavy bomber crew of Lt Joseph P. Willis in the 838th Bomb Squadron of the 487th Bomb Group. The Willis crew completed B-24 crew training with the 487th Bomb Group at Alamogordo Army Air Base, New Mexico, and deployed with the Group to England in March 1944. They flew B-24H 42-52577 from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Lavenham, England via the southern Atlantic ferry route—a journey of about 10,000 miles—and arrived at Lavenham by mid-April 1944. The 487th Bomb Group was based at Army Air Forces Station 137 near Lavenham, Suffolk, England, and was part of the 8th U.S. Army Air Force in Europe. The base control tower was located about two miles north of Lavenham at 52.1330°N, 0.7693°E.

On May 29, 1944 the 487th Bomb Group dispatched two Squadrons of B-24s to bomb the oil refinery at Politz, Germany (which is now Police, Poland). After leaving the target, the formation was attacked by German fighters in the vicinity of the rally point. Lt Wasson and eight of his crewmates went missing in action when their aircraft, B-24H 42-52577, was shot down by German Me 410 fighters and exploded over the Baltic Sea within sight of Bornholm Island. Their bodies were never found.

The aircraft was seen going down due north of the target at about 54°02'N, 14°42'E, one to two miles from the coast. Lt Willis assumed a northwesterly course towards Sweden. Witnesses saw fuel leaking from the bomb bay, which appeared to stop when an engine was feathered. The aircraft exploded, and witnesses saw it crash in the Baltic Sea at 1240 hours at 54°47'N, 14°00'E, about 20 miles northeast of Rugen Island, Germany. The navigator, Lt Edgar Allan Grabhorn, was blown clear in the explosion and survived. He was rescued later that day at 1815 hours by the German fishing vessel Oskar Friedrich at 54°39'N, 14°36'E, where he was found floating in a life raft. He became a prisoner of war.

Lt Wasson is memorialized on the Wall of the Missing at Cambridge American Cemetery near Madingley, England.

B-24H 42-52577 crew:
• Willis, Joseph P – 2/Lt – Pilot – MIA
• Wasson, Robert L – 2/Lt – Copilot – MIA
• Grabhorn, Edgar A – 2/Lt – Navigator – POW
• Slusarczyk, Stanley A – 2/Lt – Bombardier – MIA
• Estright, Alfred T – Sgt – Engineer – MIA
• Robinson Jr, Richard S – S/Sgt – Radio Operator – MIA
• Rodgers, Gilbert E – Sgt – Ball Turret – MIA
• Pierson, Robert E – Sgt – Nose Turret – MIA
• Jones, William E – Sgt – Top Turret – MIA
• Donnelly, Robert J – Sgt – Tail Turret – MIA

Source of information: Paul M. Webber, www.findagrave.com