Robert J. Wolfe

Aviation Radioman’s Mate Third Class, U.S. Navy
VC-1 Composite Squadron One
NAS Norfolk

Entered the Service from: New Jersey
Died: March 7, 1943
Buried at: New St. Mary’s Cemetery
515 West Browning Road
Bellmawr, New Jersey 08031

Aviation Radioman’s Mate Third Class Robert J. Wolfe was born in 1924 in Gloucester City, New Jersey to Joseph A. and Rose M. Wolfe of 313 Main Street. His father was a railroad telegraph operator. The family, which included older brother Edward and younger sister Dorothy, moved to the Grenloch section of Gloucester Township, New Jersey at some point after April of 1930.

Robert Wolfe had enlisted in the United States Navy prior to Pearl Harbor. Having learned Morse Code from his telegrapher father, he was trained as a radioman. Robert Wolfe served on anti-submarine duty for eleven months in the Pacific, and saw action at the Battle of Midway. After a furlough home, he was assigned to the Norfolk Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Virginia.

On March 7, 1943 Robert Wolfe was part of a three-man air crew practicing night bombing when his plane crashed in Chesapeake Bay. Wolfe was a member of Composite Squadron One (VC-1). His aircraft, a Grumman TBF-1 Avenger BuNo 01734, went missing out of NAS Norfolk with the loss of all three crew.

The body of Robert J. Wolfe was not recovered until October of 1943. He was survived by his parents, brother Radioman’s Mate Second Class Edward Wolfe, then serving at Boston, Massachusetts, and his sister, Dorothy Wolfe. A Mass was said for him at St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church, Blackwood Terrace, New Jersey, and he was buried at New St. Mary’s Cemetery in Bellmawr, New Jersey. His death was reported in the November 4, 1943 edition of the Camden Courier-Post. He lies next to his father, who passed in 1960, and his mother, who joined them in 2002.

Thanks to David Wright of Oaklyn, New Jersey for his help in researching this page.