Robert F. Regnier
Second Lieutenant Robert F. Regnier, 1939 Germantown High School yearbook, Philadelphia, PA.
Rank: Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Air Forces
Serial Number: O-2066198
Unit: 830th Bomb Squadron, 485th Bomb Group (Heavy), 15th Air Force
Hometown: Collingswood, New Jersey
Killed: , Adriatic Sea
Buried: St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, Lenox, Massachusetts
Awards: Purple Heart
Second Lieutenant Robert F. Regnier was born in Massachusetts on January 4, 1922, to Leon N. and Florence M. Bradley Regnier. In 1930 the family was living in Pittsfield, MA, where his father was the Assistant Supervisor of Mail for the United States Postal Service. The family moved to Atlanta in 1932 when Leon Regnier was appointed as a postal inspector, and then came to the Delaware Valley in 1935 when the elder Regnier was again transferred. The Regnier family first lived in Philadelphia, and Robert Regnier graduated from Germantown High School in 1939. The Regnier family moved to Collingswood, NJ at some point after his graduation.
After entering military service Robert Regnier qualified for flight duty, and trained as a bomber crew navigator. He went overseas and was assigned to the 15th Air Force, serving as a member of the 830th Bomb Squadron, 485th Bomb Group (Heavy), based out of Venosa, Italy. He lost his life on January 20, 1945 while returning from a combat mission to Linz, Austria. Robert Regnier was not flying with his regular crew the day he was lost, but as a substitute navigator. He was flying his second mission when his B-24 ditched in the Adriatic returning from their mission due to engine failure.
Robert Regnier’s body was recovered a few days later on the Italian coast. He was originally interred in Bari, Italy. He was identified by the pilot of his crew in part because he was found with a cigarette case with the initials RFR. The pilot recognized it as belonging to Robert. His father Leon tried unsuccessfully to have it returned to the family for years, but to no avail. After much searching the military claimed the case was badly rusted, of zero value and discarded when Robert was buried in Italy. It meant much to the family as Robert was an only child and his parents placed great significance on the item that positively identified their son’s remains.
Robert Regnier was returned to the United States in the fall of 1948. He was buried at St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Cemetery in Lenox, MA on November 18, 1948. He now lies next to his father, who died in Florida in April of 1956, and his mother, who joined them in March of 1968.
Robert Regnier is remembered today by John Reifer, who assisted with this page.
Photos
Left: Robert F. Regnier, Topeka, KS, October 1944. Right: Robert F. Regnier, Venosa, Italy, December 27, 1944, after his first mission.
Topeka, Kansas — October 1944
Crew photo taken shortly before going overseas. They arrived in Italy November 1944. Top row, from left: Robert Regnier, bombardier Edward Reifer, Pilot Malcolm Bacon.
Venosa, Italy — December 27, 1944
Crew photo taken after their first mission, against railroad marshaling yards at Maribor, Yugoslavia. Top row, at left: Robert Regnier. Bottom row, from left: Edward Reifer, unknown, Malcolm Bacon.
The photo was taken on December 27, 1944 just after the crew returned from their first mission. Their target was the marshalling yards at Maribor, Yugoslavia. The aircraft “LIFE” was named after the magazine and considered a lucky plane to fly. It completed over 100 missions before the war ended.
Robert Regnier is highlighted in the photograph. Most of the men have that far away, war weary look in their eyes. They already seem much older than the young men in the photo taken a few months earlier. The snow, rain and mud cancelled operations for the rest of December and well into January. The next mission, on January 20, 1945 would be Robert Regnier’s second and last mission.
Lieut. Regnier's Body To Arrive Here Tomorrow
Berkshire Evening Eagle — Pittsfield, Massachusetts —
The body of Lieut. Robert F. Regnier, son of Leon and Florence Bradley Regnier, which was recently returned from Italy, will reach Pittsfield tomorrow afternoon and will be taken to the Drennan Funeral Home. Friends may call at the funeral home Wednesday afternoon from 2 to 5 and in the evening from 7 to 10.
Lieut. Regnier was born in Pittsfield, Jan. 4, 1922. He was educated in the local and Elizabeth N.J. schools and was a graduate of Germantown High School in Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania in 1943. He enlisted in the Air Force Feb. 23, 1943. He trained at Camp Walters, Texas, and received his navigator training at Hondo, Texas, Kingman, Ariz., Santa Ana, Cal., and Lincoln, Neb. He was commissioned a lieutenant at Hondo in July, 1944. Lieut. Regnier went overseas and arrived at Bari, Italy, Nov. 1, 1944 to serve with the 15th Air Force. He was assigned to the 485th Bombardment Group 830th Squadron, and took part in several missions over Germany and Austria.
On Jan. 20, 1945, he was navigator on a heavy bomber that was disabled by antiaircraft fire and the pilot was forced to ditch the plane in the Adriatic Sea. His body drifted ashore in Southern Italy and was found Feb. 5. Only one other member of the 10-man crew was recovered.
Survivors are his parents and his maternal grandmother, Mrs. George D. Bradley of Buel Street and his paternal grandmother, Mrs. A. C. Regnier of Lenox.
Leon Regnier Lenox Native, Postal Employe
Berkshire Eagle — Pittsfield, Massachusetts —
Leon N. Regnier, 57, native of Lenox and former postal employe in Pittsfield and elsewhere, died yesterday morning in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he and Mrs. Regnier had lived since last summer.
Suffering for some time from a heart ailment, Mr. Regnier retired in 1954 from the postal service, in which his final job was reorganizing the New York City Post Office. He had started his postal career 36 years earlier. Mr. Regnier was the son of the late Augustin C. and Alice Scully Regnier. He attended the Lenox public schools and graduated in 1918 from Lenox High School. The following year he entered the railway mail service, sorting mail on trains. From 1918 to 1920, Mr. Regnier served in the Army, and following his discharge was appointed a clerk in the Pittsfield Post Office. He became assistant superintendent of mails on Oct. 16, 1929.
Active in American Legion affairs, he served as secretary of the Berkshire County American Legion and while living in Pittsfield was commander of the Pittsfield Legion post. In June, 1933, in the midst of federal retrenchment brought on by the depression, Mr. Regnier won a coveted appointment as postal inspector with headquarters at Atlanta, Ga. In an examination for the post, he attained a mark of 92, considered unusually high.
He and Mrs. Regnier, the former Miss Florence Bradley of Stockbridge, moved to Atlanta with their son, Robert, an only child. Robert was an Air Force lieutenant during World War II and was killed when his plane was shot down in Italy.
Mr. Regnier was transferred to the Philadelphia division of the Post Office Department in 1935, and in 1942 was promoted to assistant inspector in charge. From 1953 to June of 1954 he handled the reorganization of the New York Post Office. He returned to Lenox two years ago when he addressed the Lenox Kiwanis Club.
Surviving, in addition to his wife, are six brothers, Hilaire, Clement, Philip and Augustin of Lenox, Laurent of Miami, Fla., and Lucien of Dayton, Ohio; and two sisters, Mrs. Andrew Brown of Mount Vernon, N.Y., and Mrs. Richard Kaupp of Ithaca, N.Y.
Edward Reifer
Edward Reifer, bombardier on Robert Regnier’s crew.
Robert Regnier was the only member from my father’s crew that didn’t make it home. My father’s name was next on the replacement list the day Robert was chosen to fly with another crew (it was always considered bad luck to fly with another crew, as was sitting out a mission on which the rest of the crew flew). REG – REI… two letters of the alphabet decided who would fly with another crew on that January day. I have often wondered what type of life Robert would have made for himself had he returned from the war. If his name was spelled REIGNER and he and my father had changed places would he have children or grandchildren asking who Edward Reifer was? I feel I owe it to Robert to make sure his sacrifice isn’t forgotten.
My father was shot down while flying with another crew and captured in April 1945. He was liberated by Patton’s troops on April 29, 1945 and beat the rest of his crew back to the States. I don’t believe he ever saw any of his crew members again. He attended Duquesne University in Pittsburgh on the G.I. bill and raised 8 children while working at Penn State University where he was the Comptroller. He died in 1976 at the age of 51. Though he didn’t get to see any of his eight of his children graduate from Penn State, I’m sure he would consider it his most enduring legacy.
Thanks for letting me tell their stories,
John Reifer