From the Dec. 27, 2008, Raleigh (NC) News & Observer.
Vicki Quandt Lee was 22 when she learned Navy Ensign Robert G. Tills had been killed in the Philippines when his plane was shot down in Malalog Bay, Dec. 8, 1941, right at the outbreak of hostilities between the US and Japan.
They had first met as students at Northwestern College in Watertown, Wis., in 1936. Tills eventually transferred to another college and then joined the Navy.
They wrote often and planned to marry when he returned to the US in December, 1941.
On December 8, 1941, nine Japanese planes swooped down on Malalog Bay in the Philippines and strafed and sank two US Navy PBY-4 Catalina seaplanes. All crew members escaped except Ensign Robert George Tills of Manitowac, Wisconsin. He became the first US Naval officer killed in the Philippines.
His body was never recovered, but family members always thought Fillipinos had recovered it and buried him somewhere.
However, the plane was found in October 2007 and his remains determined through dental records on Dec. 1, 2008.
More to Come. --Cooter
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