Robert John Hansen
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces

Robert John Hansen was born on 25 May 1920 in Walla Walla, WA.

Hansen entered the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1941 and in 1942 was assigned to be the Radio Operator aboard the B-17, the Memphis Belle. The Memphis Belle and her crew would ultimately become the first to fly all of its required twenty-five missions in the European Theater of Operations during World War Two. Twenty-five being the number of missions to be completed before being sent back to the U.S. Her last mission was flown on 17 May 1943.

Throughout the plane's 25 missions, Hansen kept an extensive logbook that once saved his life by catching a bullet which otherwise would have struck him.

After the war, Hanson returned to Washington and worked for a food distribution company and later retired with his wife to New Mexico.

Death and Burial

Second Lieutenant Robert John Hansen died on 1 October 2005 in Albuquerque, NM. He is buried at Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, NM.