Lucky Bag Yearbook

From the 1954 Lucky Bag:

Robert Edward Birkenmeier

FOOTBALL—2. CROSS COUNTRY—2. STEEPLE CHASE—2. SOFTBALL—2.

Right out of the land of Jesse James we first encountered Wild Bob. Instead of devoting his above-average mind to academics. Bob devoted a great deal of time and effort to keeping his classmates in good spirits. His career at the Academy could only be expressed in superlatives; his captaincy of Dr. Bob’s Bullets football team, the leader of his company weightlifting club, and as social leader on Baltimore liberties made Bob one of the most completely available young men among our number. To say that Bob had many talents is a notable understatement, and the inevitable is that he will probably become a better officer than many of the midnight scholars.

Loss

Robert was lost when the C-124 Globemaster II transport (#52-1081) he was aboard crashed at Guam due to an in-flight fire. All nineteen aboard were killed.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

He graduated from McBride High School in 1948. As a junior at Cleveland High School, he was in the choir. After high school, he was a member of the Naval Air Reserve at the Naval Air Station, Lambert-St. Louis Field for about two years. He then passed his entrance examinations to the Naval Academy in July 1950. Before entering the Naval Academy, he attended Northwestern Preparatory School in Minneapolis for several months.

A memorial service was held for him at the Immaculate Conception Church in St. Louis on October 10.

Survived his wife Jeanne, 3-year-old daughter Elizabeth, 1-year-old son Michael, and his mother Mrs. Robert L. (Margaret) Birkenmeier. His father, a railroad express teller, predeceased him.

He is buried in Missouri.

Photographs

From his high school yearbook

From St. Louis Globe Democrat on September 3, 1958