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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Leader

Honored by:

Robert Ross Hotz was born in Chicago, Illinois on June 5, 1923. He had a natural ability in mechanics and in about 1939 started learning to fly and he quickly received his Private Pilots License. He graduated from Brooks School, North Andover, Massachusetts in June 1941, and about six months later joined the U.S. Army Air Force on December 8, 1941, the day after Pearl Harbor. He became a Flight Instructor and was stationed at Wichita Falls, Texas. Anxious to get into active combat, he was assigned to fly B-25 Mitchell Bombers in the 499th Bombardment Squadron (M) AFF of the 345th Bombardment Group (M). On July 30, 1944 he was missing in action as his plane was shot down during a mission over Sansapor, Dutch New Guinea and was later presumed dead by the Army.