Robert Goebel (02/28/1923 - 20/02/2011)
died last Feb. 20 in Torrance , Calif., of natural causes at the age of 87, the ace U.S. Lieutenant Colonel Robert John Goebel . Born in
Rascine, Wisconsin, Goebel was the youngest of seven children. He joined the Army Air Force in 1942, aged 19, beginning his career in Cadet Training Centre in San Antonio, Texas. He performed all his flight training bases in Texas, finding and being commissioned a second lieutenant in May 1943. Ready to go international to join the fighting, Goebel found himself, however, going to Panama , defend the Canal region. There he flew the Bell P-39 Airacobra a base near the border with Colombia, and met an eccentric Army Captain who was in charge of a remote track, and always walked, accompanied by two Indians. In December 1943, returned to the U.S. and it immediately was transferred to Algeria in North Africa .
In early January 1944 he began a transition period for Spitfires, who then equipped them the 31st Fighter Group , their designated unit. However, in April the group began to change their fighters by P-51 Mustangs, and now operate at an air base in Foggia, Italy. Goebel held its first operational mission escorting heavy bombers on April 16, 1944, and opened his score on May 29 in Vienna, Austria, where an overturned Messerschmitt Me 109 . And since the 3rd of July on Bucharest, Romania, dropped his fifth enemy aircraft, becoming an officially ace. Goebel, in his P-51 "Flying Dutchman " flew several missions as a squadron leader and two as leader of the entire group, and quickly became a veteran pilot. One of his missions followed the long-range bombers, landing in the Soviet Union and returning a few days later.
On July 20, on Friedrichshaven, Goebel spotted a Me 109 and positioned himself to open fire. As usual, he pulled the trigger to 120 meters, but realized that had just turned the camera shot. Fixing the error, Goebel German fighter was now filling your entire windshield and fired a volley scared to hit the target in full. Passing by Messerschmitt, he saw that the pilot was unconscious in the cockpit and the aircraft had gigantic holes across the fuselage - the engine was on fire. Goebel discovered the advantages of shooting a short distance " Looking back, I do not know how I managed to bring down the planes before that, shooting from as far as I was " he remembered.
In early September 1944, he received a statement saying that his operational tour was over, and would return soon to the USA. Bob Goebel had been shot down 11 enemy aircraft in a total of only 61 operational missions ! He joined the reserves in 1946, graduating in Physics from the University of Wisconsin in 1948 and returning to active service in 1950. Goebel worked on the design of rocket Gemini Program, for NASA, and retired in 1966 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. A very nice person, he had nine children and 27 grandchildren, and in 1991 published his memoirs, " Mustang Ace: Memoirs of a P-51 Fighter Pilot .
Bob Goebel in a Mustang painted in his honor.
See also:
>> Death Note: Walter Starck
>> Death Note: Lee Archer
>> Death Note: Carl Luksic
>> Death Note: Dale Karger
>> Note Death: Eugene Paul Roberts
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