Natalee Thomazin

Natalee Thomazin Darren Smith Jack Chen Honor U.S. History Period 5 Corona 4/14/2003 ELSR 1,2,5 Robert Kleinman

During the years of our limited life experience we have had the rare privilege of meeting real veterans from World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and Desert Storm.

Recently, we have had the pleasure of meeting one of these gentlemen. His name is

Colonel Robert Kleinman, USAF, ret.

Robert Kleinman had three stages in his career and life. First he was involved in

World War II. Secondly he was in the Korea War. And lastly, he became a part of the

U.S. Air Forces Space Activities. In his thirty-seven years of active duty, he flew three hundred combat hours, and sixty-one combat missions in P-51 fighter aircraft in Europe.

Not only did he destroy four enemy aircrafts on the ground, but he also encountered many different enemy fighters in the air. Some examples of the fighters were; the

Messerschmitt Bf. 109, Focke Wulf Fw. 190, and the German jet aircraft Messerschmitt

Me.262, and the Arado.234. He also flew other Air Force airplanes such as the C-46 (a military transporter), the C-47 (the military version of the Douglas DC-3), and the C-118 to name a few. Robert Kleinman serve din the European Theater during World War II and in the Korean Theater during the Korean War. In the later years of his Air Force career, Col. Kleinman went on to work on space activities in the secretary of the Air

Force, Special Projects Office, in space research. This is his story. Robert Kleinman was born in Brooklyn, New York. His life started like every normal person, he went to grammar school for eight years. Afterwards, he took the entrance exam to go to Brooklyn Technical High School, which was given to three thousand students, of which only three hundred were chosen. He was one of the fortunate few chosen. The school had every new student take two years of the same courses.

Within the next two years, the students could choose to study in a College Preparation course or if they are not planning to go to college they could choose a curriculum that would teach them practical information to guide them through life. “I took the

Aeronautical course and decided I wanted to become a pilot.” Before his graduation, he had to take a comprehensive exam to get his diploma. In January of 1941, he passed and received his Regents Diploma, which allowed him to go to any college without taking an entrance examination. The big shock of Pearl Harbor was just about to strike.

“I was going to dinner with my mother an father, an we heard it on the radio, that

Pearl Harbor had been bombed by Japan, and President Roosevelt had congress’ permission to declare war on Japan.” At the time Mr. Kleinman was little over seventeen and decided he would volunteer for the service and fight for his country. Robert and his friends joined the military to become fighter pilots. They signed up in October of 1942.

Since they did not have a college degree, they had to go through a short college training program to become aviation cadets in the Army Air Corps. Soon after he took basic training, in the winter, he went to Saint Vincent’s College in Pennsylvania, where he stayed for two months. After completing classification he became an aviation cadet and entered pilot training in July of 1943, Mr. Kleinman spent 2 ½ months in four different schools; starting with Pre-Flight Training, then going to Primary Flight School, Basic Flying School and then Advance Flying School in Georgia. Upon graduation, he was commissioned a second Lieutenant and completed training to be a single engine fighter pilot. In combat, it took just a few flight missions before he realized that war is extremely dangerous and that he was not just playing a game, it was life or death situations. Mr.

Kleinman served in the 479th fighter group under the command of Col. Hubert Zemke and flew as a member in the 436th fighter squadron located in England. He had a total of three hundred combat hours and sixty-one missions.

After his tour in Europe was completed in April of 1945, Robert returned to the

Unite States. He entered college at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, received his

Aero Engineering Degree, and returned to active duty. Upon completing electronic school at Keesler Air Base, orders came to travel to Japan with his family. These orders were cancelled and he was ordered to proceed immediately unaccompanied to the west coast for embarkation to Japan. He arrived at Japan in July of 1950; the Korean War had started on 25th of June 1950. He was stationed at Itazuke Air Base in Kyushu, Japan, and was assigned as a radar engineer. Robert had stopped flying fighter missions, and had switched over to combat cargo flights over Korea, acquiring another 100 hours of combat. 3 years later he returned to the U.S. and was assigned to the university of

Michigan Graduate School for two years and receive a master of science in engineering.

This lead to the final part of his career in space engineering in special projects in the secretary of Air Force office.

Robert Kleinman had no real regrets about his duty that he did during the wars in which he was involved. He felt that there were reasons why American did what they did in each war and he stoop by them. In World War II, the United States and allies were trying to defeat the axis power in a world war. In the Korean War, the United States was part of the United Nations force and was there to keep North Korea from invading South

Korea. “What I was doing was paramount to providing a place for young people, making the world safe for democracy. “Robert Kleinman retired thirty-seven years after swearing into the military, he attained the rank of Colonel USAF, was a command pilot, and a master missile man. The secretary of the Air Force has also recognized Col. Kleinman for his space accomplishments, special projects for his efforts that pioneered and revolutionize global space reconnaissance.