2nd Lt. Robert C. Robinson, Jr.
2d Lt Robert C. Robinson, Jr.
14 Jan 1923 – 25 Mar 1945
Class 44-G-SE
Graduation Date: August 4, 1944
Unit: 332nd Fighter Group, 100th Fighter Squadron
Service # O-835414
Robert C. Robinson grew up in Asheville, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Robinson. The senior Robinson served for many years as Manager of the Asheville and Charlotte District of North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company.
2nd Lieutenant Robinson was reported missing in action during the March, 1945 “Raid on Berlin” near the end of World War II. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The Black American Legion Building in Asheville was named in his honor.
Robinson was a member of Hopkins Chapel A.M. E. Zion Church where he participated in Sunday School. He attended Asheville city schools, and was graduated from Stephens-Lee High School. His hobby of building model airplanes led him to Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, AL, from which he graduated in 1944. Following his college career, he was commissioned a second Lieutenant from the Tuskegee Airmen USA, with whom he served as a fighter pilot with the 332nd Airborne Division.
2nd Lieutenant Robinson was reported missing in action during the March, 1945 “Raid on Berlin” near the end of World War II. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. The Black American Legion Building in Asheville was named in his honor.
After his passing, he was posthumously awarded a “Purple Heart.” On August 1, 2014 at the Brewer Reunion, the family of 2nd Lieutenant Robert Clifton Robinson, Jr. held a special ceremony where they posthumously awarded him a bronze replica of the Congressional Gold Medal like the one Tuskegee Airmen had received in March 29, 2007 from President George Bush. At that time the President, members of Congress and other dignitaries joined some 300 airmen, widows and other relatives in the sun-splashed Capitol Rotunda for the ceremony recognizing the Tuskegee Airmen for their long-ago heroism.
At the 2015 Brewer Family Reunion, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, in Washington, D.C. a Congressional Gold Medal and other plaques, including one from President Barack Obama, the mayor of Asheville, North Carolina, and the Brewer family, were presented by Mr. Vernon Robinson of Winston-Salem, who played a significant role in researching much of Lieutenant Robert C. Robinson Jr.’s Air Force history. The awards were accepted by Lt. Robinson’s sisters, Mrs. Gwendolyn Robinson Atkinson and Mrs. Genevieve Robinson Brown, of Charlotte, NC. The ceremony was attended by government dignitaries, the U. S. Air Force Honor Guard, and Tuskegee Airmen from the East Coast Chapter.
The original Congressional Gold Medal for the Tuskegee Airmen is at the Smithsonian Institution for display.
Robert Clifton Robinson Jr is buried or memorialized at Arlington National Cemetery. This is a National American Cemetery administered through the Department of the Army.
Sources:
HonorStates.org
The Post and Courier
The Urban News
