Tuggle Robert Jr.

Monuments

Air Squadron VC-97 TBF Avenger Crew Execution Memorial. -USS Makassar Strait (CVE-91)

Name:

Robert Jr. Tuggle

Rank:

Aviation Ordnanceman First Class

Serial Number:

6174722

Unit:

VC-97

Date of Death:

1945-04-15

State:

Texas

Cemetery:

Honolulu Memorial

Plot:

Tablets of the Missing

Row:

Grave:

Decoration:

Purple Heart

Comments:

Robert Tuggle, Jr.
Aviation Ordnanceman 1st Class - AOM 1/c

Robert was born in Eastland, Texas on January 4, 1925 and graduated from Brownwood High School. Robert's experiences of growing up in Brownwood, Texas were documented by his boyhood friend John Eugene Clardy in the book titled "Confessions of the Willis Creek Gang."

He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1943 and served aboard the USS Makassar Strait (CVE-91) in the attached Squadron VC-97. He was the rear gunner on a Grumman TBM Avenger.

On the morning of April 15, 1945, crewmates Robert Tuggle Jr., Lt.Vernon Tebo and Warren Loyd ARM 1/c. were shot down over Ishigaki Island and killed in action. The Bilingual Memorial Monument on Ishigaki Island and Fredericksburg Memorial are dedicated to these fallen heroes.

Source: https://shipleybay.com/tuggle.htm