Robert Benjamin Hastie

24 April 1924 – May 23, 2020

From the 95th BG Memorials Foundation Facebook page posted by David Hastie:

Sad to inform you that Robert Benjamin Hastie has passed on to that great flight in the sky, not from COVID-19 but a continuing heart condition. He was born in Lead, South Dakota 24 April 1924 and was baptized in the Finnish Lutheran church. The family moved to Kenosha Wisconsin in 1926, where his father became a machinist with Nash Motors.

He was always intrigued with flight, as his dad served with the 156th Aero Squadron in WW I. So early in the 1930's, he and a friend saved up their money to take their first flight on a Trimotor Ford that was visiting Kenosha. In 1942 he graduated from high school and with the war on, he enlisted in the USAAF as an Aviation Cadet. On 17 August 1943 he flew his first plane solo and became a PILOT!

During WWII, he served as a B-17 pilot in the 95th Bomb Group 334th Squadron flying 35 missions over occupied Europe then transitioned into Mosquitos and flew reconnaissance with the 25th Bomb Group 654th Squadron. He returned to the USA in 1945, sailing on the Queen Mary.

His decorations include: Pilot Wings, European-Africa-ME Campaign Medal (with 5 Bronze Stars), Air Medal (with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters), AAF Presidential Unit Citation (with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster), World War II Victory Medal, Russian Commemorative Medal (The 50th Anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War) 1994, Polish Uprising Cross 2004, Polish Merit for Warsaw 2004, and the French Knight of the Legion of Honor 2014.