Robert Eggert Damon

Corporal Robert Eggert Damon served with the U.S. Army Air Forces. Corporal Damon enlisted in the US Army Air Corps on Nov. 24, 1939. He completed his aircraft mechanics course in September of 1940 and was stationed with the 93rd Bombardment Squadron at March Field, California. In fall 1941, the 93rd deployed to the Phillippines where Damon serviced B-17 Flying Fortresses at Clark Field. In December 1941, shortly after Pearl Harbor was attacked in Hawaii, Clark Field was also attacked, with swaths of the 93rd being captured by Japanese forces. Corporal Damon was likely one of these men, and as such, would have been subjected to the Bataan Death March. He was moved to several Japanese prison camps in Luzon. He remained in Japanese custody until 1944, when he boarded the Japanese ship, the Arisan Maru. The Maru was sunk on Oct. 24, 1944, by an American submarine, not knowing it was carrying American POWs. Damon was one of 1,782 POWs killed in the sinking. His remains are still unaccounted for. Cpl. Damon is memorialized on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery in Manila, Philippines.