"He (Robert) was smaller than the other parachutists we knew and did not appear to be as sturdy. The last Sunday the boys were all at our house ,he demonstrated, at least, that I was wrong about that. Several of my sons Washington's friends were also at the party. including one boy in the Navy who described one of their setting up Exercises. It starts with a push up from the floor, done with a sufficient snap to throw the body into the air. While up there, the trick is to clap the hands and click the heels together quickly enough to catch yourself before you shove your nose through the carpet. The Navy boy did it once, very badly, but Robert was interested. “That looks like a good trick” he said. So he spread himself out on the floor and did the thing ten times. I think he could have done more but I stopped him, having some idea that the house might fall down if I didn’t."

"What fighting there was occurred when the patrols from the line regiments slipped across the river at night - the once-thought impregnable Rhine, now vulnerable to any squad with a boat- and bumped into still dangerous defenders.

(...)The other large raid of the campaign was carried out on the night of April 11-12 by Company A of the 506th. One Hundred twenty-six members of the company and four of the 321st Artillery Battalion crossed the Rhine in sixteen assault boats just after midnight and attacked the river-bank village of Himmelgeist. They ran in to a scattering of small arms fire, killed two defenders, and entered the town. In Himmelgeist they captured seven civilians suspected of having taken part in the defense of the place and then withdrew, getting back to the far shore by 0415. The raid cost the company three killed and four wounded, mostly from small arms fire, though there was some flat-trajectory shelling during the withdrawal. Two boats capsized in midstream under enemy artillery fire and eight men were missing, believed drowned."

"It leaves me without words when I try to write to you folks. For I know what misery you have gone through waiting for word from Bob.

Now that it finally came I hope you won’t feel as if he is gone forever. For I know that we will all see him again. Somewhere, someday we will be able to talk with him and find out exactly what happened for we are all in doubt of what the real thing was. I am going to try and go see where he was buried. But the army does odd things.

You asked about the Mc Crea boy. Well Bob and I saw him afterwards. He was in a different sector from us but he was lying next to the road as we went by on our way back. He died in an instant after being hit so there was no suffering. A small piece of shrapnel killed him.

As for the Bastogne deal, well it is another long story so I’d best wait till I get home to tell you about that.

The raid Bob lost his life, he was loaded with extra ammunition and grenades. The raid we pulled across the Rhine. It was below D\uFFFDorf and about five miles from Nienenhiem.

It was at that time of the Rhine-pocket, so you see what we were up against. We started across about midnight to load in the boats, three 88's opened up and everybody instantly tried to hop into the nearest boat to where they were. As a result, four boats overturned and we lost 18 men. What few did get out said that it was impossible to swim in the current. Our boats picked up some but it was so dark that we couldn't see over 5 feet in front."

"I was squad leader of the 2nd squad, 2nd platoon, A Co. at that time, 12 April 1945, the night President Roosevelt died. Alex Abercrombie died along with Syer, Santillan and Floyd Roberts by German artillery fire; all of whom were buried by the Germans in a common grave. Their bodies were recovered by a patrol led by Jack Bram a couple of days later and brought back across the Rhine River in a rowboat.  Pfc Corgan was in my squad as were two other new replacements. Corgan was seriously wounded in both arms, the medics bandaged him and bound his arms to his body in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Corgan's boat was overturned by a close artillery round as we were returning to the American side of the Rhine from Himmelgeist. Corgan drowned as a result.  I did receive two new replacements the morning of 12 April 1945 but didn't have time to get their names on our roster. Both of them also drowned as a result of overturned boats in heavy artillery fire. I do not know their names and as far as I know, there is no way I can find out now. One of them may have been Robert Morneweck."

"I received your question from Joe Beyrle this PM. I was in A Co. 506 since Feb., 1944, that is before Normandy, through every battle to the last day the division was active. We did receive several replacement paratroopers into A Company after the 4th Armored broke through to us in Bastogne. Most of these men did not get onto our roster because of our combat situation and we older men did not get to know most of them by name. At least not well enough to retain their names throughout these many past years.

Company A did make a night crossing attack of the Rhine into the German town of Himmelgiest the same night that President Roosevelt died. Four of our men were killed outright on the other side, their bodies were recovered two nights later by one of our patrols led by Sgt. Jack Bram, now deceased. None of these men was your brother. On our return trip from the attack in assault boats we were shelled by German tanks that approached the edge of the Rhine. Several boats were overturned and several of our troopers were drowned, one of them from my squad named Alfred Corgan. Two other new replacement men in my squad were also drowned that night, their bodies were recovered several days later on the shore two miles downstream. I do not recall their names for they were among the new men that came to us as replacements when the 4th Armored broke into Bastogne.

However, I did find your brother's name listed in the KIA section of the 101st book, 'Rendezvous With Destiny', by Rapport and Northwood. I am very sorry that evidently one of the men that died that night was your brother and that due to circumstances of the battles that we were engaged in I did not get to know him better and that I cannot tell you more about him. Robert did conduct himself as a paratrooper and with bravery that is well associated with all paratroopers. All my best to you and yours. - Airborne, Donald R. Burgett, Sgt. A Co. 506

I was in Company A at the time of your brother's death, although I didn't actually know him.

As you know, Bob died on our Rhine crossing the night of April 11-12, 1945, but he wasn't killed by enemy fire. On our return crossing of the river, we came under fire from a German 88mm cannon sending air bursts above the river. Whether due to this or overcrowding, I can't say, but two of our boats overturned and seven men were lost, one of whom was your brother. Those men were originally listed as "Missing in action", but that was changed a week later to "Killed in action". I have copies of the report listing their names and would be happy to send you one or drop one off when I am on that side of town, if you wish (I live... address left off for privacy). If you would like a copy of my account of the raid from my memoir, I'll be happy to provide that, also. In addition, in my company photo album, I have one group picture that I believe includes Bob. If you would like to meet for coffee sometime and I make that a positive identification, I will then have a print made for you.

There is one thing I'd like to know from you. Although the drownings occurred early on the morning of April 12, I have heard that some of the deaths are listed as April 18, the day the report was changed from MIA to KIA. What date was given to your family?