Robert Earnest Daw, Jr. was born on January 4, 1922 in Joaquin, Texas. He was the only child of Robert Earnest Daw, Sr. (1900-1964) and Christine Irish Daw (1901-1969). June graduated as the Valedictorian of the Joaquin High School class of 1940. That fall he enrolled at Texas A & M and became the first member of the Irish family to attend college. He was majoring in chemical engineering and lived in what was called a project house with 12 to 25 other students who did their own cooking and cleaning which significantly lowered college expenses. Coming from a small east Texas school June found he was behind many of his fellow students but with hard work and determination he caught up with his classmates.
As the junior year began the world changed forever with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941. The plan at A & M was for the junior class to finish the spring semester, receive their commissions and wait to be called to active duty. June who was studying chemical warfare in ROTC wanted to fly so he dropped out of school and joined the Army Air Corps. It was almost one year before he was called to active duty and he spent that time working at the Hughes Tool Company in Lake Charles, Louisiana. He was then ordered to active duty on February 18th, 1943 and spent the next 18 months in the Aviation Cadet Program. It was a grueling program of which half did not finish. June was given advanced training in the P-47 Thunderbolt Fighter that was at the time the largest and heaviest plane to be powered by a single engine. It was equipped with eight 50 caliber machines guns and 2500 pounds of bombs. In April 1944 Second Lieutenant Robert E. Daw, Jr. graduated and received his silver pilot wings.
2LT Daw served in the 377th Fighter Squadron, 362nd Fighter Group. He was Killed in Action on December 30, 1944 in Benonchamp, Belgium and is now buried in the Joaquin Cemetery, Joaquin, Shelby County, Texas, USA. There was an eyewitness statement of the incident from 1st Lt. Robert J. Racine who had been in contact with June by radio. His statement is as follows “I was flying Blue three with Lt. Daw on my wing on a mission in the Bastogne Area. We were strafing armed vehicles on the edge of a woods. On our last pass I looked back and saw Lt. Daw going over the edge of the forest very low. In a few moments I looked back and saw Lt. Daw going straight off his pass about 100 feet off the ground. About the same time Lt. Daw sounding very excited called over the radio that he just flew through some trees and he was going it. Red leader not understanding his call told him to bail out if he was in trouble. Lt. Daw then called again that the engine was dead and he was going in. From the time he first hit the woods till his last call over the radio was enough time for him to reach good ground to belly in and possibly on our side of the front lines. It is not known whether he did or not. This took place at 1600 hours about 17 miles southeast of Bastogne”.
Source of information: www.findagrave.com