Reece B. Robertson, Salt Lake City, Utah: an interview by Benjamin J. Bahlmann, March 7, 2002: Saving the Legacy tape nos. 498-500

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REE E B. ROBERT 0 R H 7 2002 REE: Yes. Well, later on the war department wrote me a letter trying t find ut wh r he was when he was hit. I told them I didn't know where he was or where I wa . I aid I don't know. Maybe if you checked the records and it might show where we wer flying on that particular day because it was near that area that we were supposed to be bombing that it happened. I think they eventually did find his body. That was my understanding. I communicated with his mother back and forth, and I guess they found the body. BEN: Really. You did that for a little bit. And was that just something you did on your own choice, or write? REE: Yes, every Christmas I wrote, and finally I quit getting letters, so I don't know what happened. But his sister came to visit me, and her husband, paid me a short visit from Los Angeles. BEN: Let's go back where you're grouping up with more people. You have infantrymen with you now. REE: Well, they then begin to separate us to airmen, because they had a place where there was supposed to be expert interrogators. Their job was to interview or to talk to these downed airmen, apparently some special place, I guess. I'd heard about it. They said they'll do anything to try to get the information out. They'll try to butter you up, or whatever. I thought when I was there, I thought, "Boy when are they going to give me this good treatment they talked about, to try to get me to .... " Now in here, I mentioned a train ride. Actually, I think it was before that train ride. They had a bunch of us there and they lined us all up and they said, "All the fighter pilots step one pace forward." Nobody moved. So later on this fellow called me over and he said, "If you tell us where your crew is, we'll see that you all get put together." Now, of course, my only crewman had been 64