Robert William Samuel Stinson

Robert Stinson was born in Flint, Michigan on 12 June 1912. He was the only son of Ray and Zoe (Cutler) Stinson, and spent his childhood in Michigan before moving to Delaware County, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, “Bob” attended Overbrook High School for a few years and earned a reputation as an actor; when he transferred to Upper Darby High School, “Overbrook wept and Upper Darby powdered” as he took the lead in the senior play. He graduated with the Upper Darby class of 1931, and in the fall of that year began studying at Muhlenberg College.

Stinson was a gifted writer, and developed a taste for journalism while in college. He spotted a career opportunity during his sophomore year, and in 1933 Stinson left Muhlenberg to work full time for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the years that followed, Stinson worked with the N. W. Ayer advertising agency, as a scriptwriter for Mutual Broadcasting, and eventually joined the staff of the Saturday Evening Post.

By October 1942, Stinson was the acting publicity director for the Post and lived comfortably in Wayne, Pennsylvania with his wife Kathryn.

Stinson was no stranger to life in uniform when he enlisted in the Marine Corps on 19 October 1942. According to his service records, he spent two and a half years in the peacetime Army. With his previous military experience and his professional resume, Stinson was quickly elevated to the rank of sergeant and assigned to public relations duty in Philadelphia.

In the spring of 1943, Sergeant Stinson was designated a war correspondent. He was attached to the Second Airdrome Battalion, an antiaircraft defense unit and deployed to the Pacific. In August 1943, the battalion arrived in Nukufetau, part of the Ellice Islands (now Tuvalu), to set up AA protection for a new air base.

Stinson soon tired of the routine reporting, and decided to chase “the hottest story in the central Pacific.” When rumors of a planned invasion of the Marshall Islands reached his desk, Stinson volunteered to cover the story. He was placed on assignment with VB-108, a Navy bomber squadron newly arrived in Nukufetau, to tell the story of their preparations for combat.

On 17 November 1943, Sergeant Stinson boarded PB4Y-1 #32123 for a long-range reconnaissance mission. The big bomber roared down the airstrip and took off on the first leg of an 800-mile flight. It never returned to base, and on 18 November 1943 the crew was reported as missing.

Six days later, a patrol craft spotted a rubber boat with six survivors aboard. Four more were picked up the next day. Sergeant Stinson was the only man left unaccounted for – the crew reported he went down with the plane.

Sergeant Robert Stinson was the first Marine Corps correspondent to lose his life in World War II.

After speaking with survivors of the crash, Sergeant John R. Hurley, one of Stinson’s colleagues, had the “sad privilege” to tell the story:

While returning at night from a lone patrol into enemy territory, his plane’s instruments went awry and the pilot, Lt. Paul Hardy, tried vainly to reach the base in the Ellice Islands.

When fuel ran dangerously low, he instructed all hands to prepare for a power stall landing so the plane would remain in control until the last possible moment. The braking assured minimum casualties.

Sergeant Stinson, according to crew members, braced himself amidships. From his position near the bomb bays, he shouted he was set when the others called him to the ship’s rear.

Almost on impact the plane broke in two. Sergeant Stinson was crushed in the wreckage a speedily carried away in the sea before he could be aided by the valiant survivors, since commended by their commanding officer.

The survivors disentangled themselves and the nearly drowned pilot and managed to man two rubber rafts. They drifted for six days before being picked up.

CENOTAPHS
Honolulu Memorial, Tablets of the Missing