Roemer gave cadets wings

BY KEVIN WOODRUFF

Wyoming County Press Examiner

World War II veteran Robert Roemer was not fighting on the front lines, but served his country in a different way.

He made sure pilots were ready to take to the skies.

Roemer, 92, of Tunkhannock, was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps, who taught cadets to fly B17 and B29 planes from 1943 to 1946.

Roemer began his stint in the Army Air Corps after his wife Kitty's brother enlisted in the service.

Prior to joining, the Roemers, who married in 1942, resided in Pleasantville, N.Y., where Robert worked for United Carbide Company.

Roemer completed his training in Nashville, Tenn., and then spent time at Cape Girardeau, Mo., Walnut Ridge, Ark., and Dothan, Ark.

The majority of his time was spent at Walnut Ridge and at Lockbourne Air Corps Base in Columbus, Ohio.

He was stationed in Walnut Ridge where he spent one and a half years instructing cadets on how to use single engine aircraft.

Roemer then moved on to Lockbourne where he stayed for one year and seven months instructing cadets about B17s.

"That was my first time working with a multi-engine plane," Roemer said. "At that point I couldn't even drive one on the ground, let alone in the sky."

But his skill progressed and he was soon instructing cadets on how to keep the planes in the sky.

"After Lockbourne, I was given an assignment to instruct cadets on B29s at Montgomery, Alabama," Roemer said. "And I stayed there for a period until the war in Japan was over."

Roemer said that during his time at Montgomery, the war was winding down and cadets weren't being deployed to fight which caused a build up of soldiers at the base.

He said that in order to get flight pay, cadets had to have at least four hours in the sky per week, which was tough to accomplish with the number of soldiers and because the military was cutting back on the use of multi-engine planes.

"They had a big hangar full of single engine planes that were all packed away at Gunter Field," Roemer said. "And when they stopped making the B29s, they starting flying those."

Roemer said that he was popular with cadets because he was one of only 12 lieutenants that had any experience flying single-engine planes.

"For a while there I felt like the most popular guy in the military," Roemer said. "Everyone was flocking to me to get their flight time."

Although Roemer never saw live combat, he did have some tough experiences serving as an instructor.

Roemer witnessed one of his good friends plummet from the sky as the engine in a plane he was flying failed.

"I was the hostess of a cadet After Roemer's time in the military was over, he went back to Union Carbide.

"I remember coming home with no money," Kitty said. "It was that way for everyone."

Although experiencing World War II is not a fond memory for Kitty, she and Robert do have good memories from that time.

"It was a different time then, not like now," Kitty said. "Even though it was terrible, you felt like everyone in the country was on your side."

Following his time at Union Carbide, Roemer went on to become a vice president for two New York based companies before retiring to Lake Carey in 1975.

The Roemers acquired the cottage of the late Admiral Harold Rainsford Stark, Commander of United States Naval Operations from 1939-1942, who happened to be Kitty's great uncle.

Kitty, 86, still resides in the cottage, and Robert is a resident of Golden Living Center in Tunkhannock Township.