On June 20, 1944, McCollum’s B-24J Liberator bomber collided mid-air with another B-24 while flying over the Baltic Sea off the Danish coast.2nd Lt. Robert T. McCollum. Credit: DPAA
Posted on 03/07/2025 7:27:37 PM PST by SunkenCiv
On June 20, 1944, McCollum’s B-24J Liberator bomber collided mid-air with another B-24 while flying over the Baltic Sea off the Danish coast.2nd Lt. Robert T. McCollum. Credit: DPAA
On June 20, 1944, McCollum's B-24J Liberator bomber collided mid-air with another B-24 while flying over the Baltic Sea off the Danish coast.Credit: U.S. Air Force photos / DPAA
Great man from a different time.
RIP Soldier and welcome home. thx for the post.
This story touches me, my late Father was a bombardier on a B-24 in the Army Air Forces in the Pacific Theater.
bttt
2nd Lt. Robert T. McCollum,
Thank you for your sacrifice. Rest in peac
Early this morning I posted about a Korean War POW whose remains were finally identified after all this time. His hometown in North Carolina is giving him a hero's funeral tomorrow.
It is truly amazing that many who had been thought missing forever have come to be laid to rest where they deserve to be.
He was a soldier, not an “airman”.
Welcome home, fallen patriot...
R.I.P.
RIP
Welcome home 2nd Lt. Robert T. McCollum. Thank you for your service.
I salute you sir.
Yup, I’d saved out the body and link of the current article and forwarded it to someone (who didn’t post it) before I saw yours.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/chat/4302679/posts?page=3#3
RIP my Brother.
....hmmm....not sure about that....why shouldn’t he be called an airman...? jus’ askin’ ......
AIRMAN
“An airman is a member of an air force or air arm of a nation’s armed forces. In certain air forces, it can also refer to a specific enlisted rank. An airman can also be referred to as a soldier in other definitions. As a military rank designation, the male form of address also applies to women”
The U.S. Army Air Forces was the Army and known as soldiers.
The term soldier wasn’t replaced with “airman” until the 20th of February of 1950, it would have been more accurate and informative to use the word soldier for the Army soldier of WWII before the Air Force even existed.
The parts of the American Army that earned the fame and glory while dying by the 10s of thousands in some of the most deadly and valiant combat ever, were part of the Army, not the future Air Force.
Ronald Reagan was an officer in the horse cavalry for years, then in transportation and then the Army Air Forces, always a soldier.
Traditionally, even as far back as WWII, anyone who piloted a plane or was a member of an aircrew was called an airman no matter his service branch. So while he was a member of the U.S. Army Air Force and a soldier, he was also an airman.
He was an airman. Ask any of the fliers from WWII and they’ll proudly tell you they were airmen. Recognition of the Air Force in 1947 came about specifically because airmen knew they were not the same as ground pounders.
Colonel, USAF JAG (Ret)
The writer should have used the more accurate and informative word.
The Air Force was created in 1947 and the new military branch replaced “soldier” with “airman” in 1950, before that they were known as soldiers.
“20 February 1950
General Vandenberg directed that from this day forth, enlisted personnel of the Air Force will be called “Airmen” to distinguish them from “Soldiers” and “Sailors .” Formerly, Air Force enlisted personnel were still called “Soldiers.”
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