Three Sundays ago, an email arrived here from Farley G. Mann of Oceanside, Calif. He identified himself as a veteran of World War II, in which he’d been a navigator with the U.S. Army Air Corps on a B-17, the heavy bomber known as the “Flying Fortress.”

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From August 1944 to August 1945, Mr. Mann said, he served in Italy. Part of that time he served with a young man from St. Louis, fellow navigator Lt. Robert L. Hall.

 

Mr. Hall was killed in action on Feb. 28, 1945. Mr. Mann said that, at the time, he wrote a letter of condolence to Mr. Hall’s widow. He wrote again when his buddy’s belongings were sent home. Now, 66 years later, it was time to write again.

 

In his letter, Mr. Mann told us that he will be 87 in September. He said he has thought of Mr. Hall many times over the years. Mr. Mann kept a photograph of Mr. Hall’s grave in Italy and other small pieces of memorabilia — a log of the missions Mr. Hall flew, a copy of the order that granted Mr. Mann, Mr. Hall and others leave to go to the island of Capri for a week of “R & R.”

 

“With Memorial Day coming up, I thought his family might be interested in what I knew about my friend,” he wrote. He thought that someone at the Post-Dispatch might help him track down family members.

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We checked the Post-Dispatch archives. A death notice for “Lt. Robert L. Hall, 24, navigator ... killed in action over Italy, Feb. 28” was published on March 29, 1945.

 

In 1999, Charles Richards published “The Second Was First,” a history of the “lives and times of the men of the Second Bombardment Group.” It contains a detailed account of the bombing mission on which Mr. Hall lost his life. It also chronicles some of Mr. Mann’s contributions.

 

Mr. Hall’s name appears on the group’s honor roll of the “brave young men (who) gave their lives to prevent oppression of others.”

 

So we phoned Mr. Mann to learn more about his friend.

 

“He was the kind of guy you liked being around,” Mr. Mann recalled. “Good natured. Easy going.... Dressed well.”

 

“He was two years older than me, and one of the first guys I met who was going to be a father.”

 

Mr. Mann recalled that Mr. Hall’s child had been expected in April or May, and would be his and his wife’s first. After 35 missions, Mr. Hall would get to go home. The two buddies conspired to get him home in time for the birth.

 

Mr. Mann was the squadron’s lead navigator and did the scheduling. Mr. Hall sought every assignment possible to hasten his leave.

 

“All we gave a damn about was going home,” Mr. Mann said.

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Mr. Hall died on his 27th mission, navigating B-17 No. 582, flown by Col. John D. Ryan, the 2nd Bomb Group commander and operations officer of the 5th Bomb Wing. They took off from their base at Amendola, on the southeastern “spur” of Italy, to bomb the Verona-Perona Railroad Bridge, a key chokepoint into the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria.

 

Anti-aircraft fire was intense. A shellburst killed Mr. Hall and Donald Simon, the upper turret gunner. Col. Ryan, who later became Air Force Chief of Staff, and three other crewmen were wounded.

 

We asked Mr. Mann what, over the years, comes to mind when he thinks about his friend. He explained that, as the bomb group’s lead navigator, he ordinarily would have flown with Col. Ryan’s crew. But on Feb. 28, Mr. Mann was part of a crew that was ferrying back a recently repaired plane.

 

Mr. Mann asked for a moment to compose himself.

 

“I think about him because he took my place,” he said.

 

“I think about what his life might have been like. He was a smart guy, and he would have been a success.

 

“I think about him because of my having three of my own kids,” he said. “I think about what he missed and what I have not missed."

 

“He had everything going for him — and then it’s all over.”

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Mr. Hall’s wedding announcement also is in the Post-Dispatch archives. He married Margaret Beatrice Clarke at Christ Church Cathedral on Dec. 22, 1943.

 

The announcement notes that “the bride attended Lindenwood College.” We contacted the school — now Lindenwood University — and explained the situation.

 

Paul Huffman, the university’s archivist, replied almost immediately. He told us that the woman we were trying to reach now is known as Margaret Clarke Linn. She attended Lindenwood during the 1940-41 and 1941-42 academic years and now lives in Webster Groves.

 

Mrs. Linn — known to friends as “Cissy” since childhood — will turn 91 in July. She said she was shocked but delighted at the inquiry about her late husband. She told us Robert Hall was “a great fellow” whom she had known since grade school. She had grown up on Scanlan Avenue in St. Louis, and both had attended Longfellow School. He was tall, handsome and polite, she said.

 

“If a woman walked in a room, he was on his feet.”

 

They started dating while students at the University of Missouri, to which Mrs. Linn had transferred from Lindenwood, “and from there it went to romance,” she said. She was seven or eight months pregnant when she was notified of his death. She gave birth to a daughter, Pamela.

 

“He didn’t get to see her,” she said.

 

“My parents were great, and so was an aunt and all of our neighbors — everybody helped out.” After the war, she met and married Richard Linn, another GI. He adopted her daughter. They had a son together. Mr. Linn died eight years ago. “He was an excellent man, too,” Mrs. Linn said. “I was so lucky to find two great guys.”

 

We told Mrs. Linn that Mr. Mann was looking for her. They spoke by phone last week — a private conversation.

 

“She was moved, and that made two of us,” Mr. Mann told us.

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On Memorial Day we honor our war dead. We visit their graves and reflect on their sacrifice. We keep their memories alive — as Farley Mann and Margaret Linn have done gracefully over decades and distance for Robert L. Hall, husband, friend and American hero.

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("Remembering Robert L. Hall" first appeared as an unsigned editorial written by Eddie Roth in the May 30, 2011 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch)