Lt Col Robert G. DeGroat (USAFR, Ret.) was born on June 9, 1921. He graduated from Classical High School, Springfield, MA, in June 1939, then from nearby Springfield College magna cum laude in February 1943.
He had enlisted in the Army Air Forces while still in college. He learned to fly PT-23s during Primary Training at Harris Field, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, which he completed on November 4, 1943. He graduated from Basic Training in January 1944 at Malden AAF, Missouri, flying the BT-13. Advanced Training meant flying the twin-engined AT-10 at Stewart Field, New York, in one of only three classes to do so. He obtained his pilot wings with the rest of Class 44-C on March 12, 1944.
While he really wanted to fly P-38 Lightnings, he was given a limited choice due to the needs of the war effort: B-17 Flying Fortress or B-24 Liberator. He chose the B-24 because it was reported to be bigger, faster, and perhaps more difficult to fly. B-24 transition was at Maxwell Field, Alabama. Combat Crew Training was completed at Biggs Field, El Paso, Texas.
2Lt DeGroat and the rest of Crew 6183 became part of the Fifteenth Air Force in Italy. This replacement crew flew B-24G Cherry II SN 42-78160 on combat missions with the 758th Bomb Squadron, 459th Bomb Group from October to December 1944.
They were shot down on the 459th Bomb Group's Mission 166 to the oil refinery at Oswiecim, Poland, on December 18, 1944. He became a German prisoner-of-war and was eventually held at Stalag IIIA in Luckenwalde, Germany. The camp was eventually liberated on April 22, 1945 by rapidly-advancing Russian tank crews headed for Berlin.
Postwar he was an instructor pilot in both the C-46 Commando and the C-119 Flying Boxcar with the 512th Troop Carrier Wing at New Castle County Airport in Wilmington, DE, and later at Willow Grove NAS, Pennsylvania in the newly-formed U.S. Air Force Reserve. He retired from military flying in June 1960. He retired from the USAF Reserve as a Lt Colonel on June 30, 1966.
On the civilian side, he was Athletic Director at Tower Hill School, Wilmington, DE from December 1946 until June 1981. As head football coach from 1947 to 1973, he had three undefeated teams, and six others with only one loss. He was voted Delaware Coach of the Year in 1959. Tower Hill's football field became DeGroat Field, named in his honor in 2007. Coach DeGroat was elected to the Delaware Sports Hall of Fame in 2010 posthumously.
He earned the following awards: Air Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster, American Campaign Medal, Prisoner of War Medal, WWII Europe-Africa-Middle East Medal, and WWII Victory Medal. He was also awarded membership in the Caterpillar Club. LtCol DeGroat died January 30, 2003. He represents the best of what is now known as the Greatest Generation.