Oct 09 , 2025
Robert E. Femoyer, B-17 Navigator Awarded the Medal of Honor
Robert E. Femoyer’s voice cracked through the static, faint but unyielding. Shrapnel tore through his chest, breaths came ragged and shallow. The B-17 formation wobbled in German skies, enemy flak painting death all around.
He held the radio key.
Every transmission he sent pinpointed the bomber’s path, guiding fighters and gunners alike. Every word bought time. Every word was a prayer.
He was dying but still fighting.
The Battle That Defined Him
November 2, 1944. Deep over Nazi Germany. Lt. Robert E. Femoyer served as a navigator in the 305th Bomb Group, 423rd Squadron. The mission was high-risk: target an enemy airfield in Merseburg, a crucial hub for German jet fighters.
The sky exploded with black bursts of flak. Femoyer was hit.
Shrapnel shredded his lungs. Doctors later would say his injury was mortal. But here, in those frantic minutes, he refused to die quietly.
Instead of calling for evacuation, he stayed—a lone link.
His compass failed. His maps were nearly useless. Enemy fighters closed in. With every breath he dragged through torn ribs, Femoyer corrected the bombers’ course and radioed vital information.
He was the squadron’s lifeline.
Each transmission was agony and salvation fused together. His final message came nearly 90 minutes after he’d been hit—an eternity in the sky, when blood loss commands surrender.
They turned back, mission saved.
Faith Forged in Fire
Robert Femoyer was no stranger to hardship growing up in Huntington, West Virginia. Raised in a devout Lutheran family, he carried the quiet strength of scripture in his soul.
“He was a deeply faithful man, a gentle soul wrapped in a warrior’s resolve,” recalled a childhood friend.
His belief system was a battlefield armor. It forged his courage when the world shattered around him. Femoyer often quoted Isaiah 41:10:
“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God.”
That trust did not mean absence of fear—no. It meant acting in spite of it.
The codes of faith and military honor merged in him. Serve boldly. Protect your brothers. Endure till the end.
Valor Above All Else
After the mission, the war did not pause for mourning.
Lt. Femoyer was awarded the Medal of Honor on March 17, 1945—posthumously, for the courage that saved 10 bombers from certain destruction. His citation speaks in stark terms:
“Lt. Femoyer, though mortally wounded, refused to leave his post and continued to transmit vital information… thus permitting the bomber formation to successfully reach friendly territory and safety.”
At the dedication ceremony, his squadron commander, Col. David M. Schilling, said:
“He is the finest example of courage and devotion I have ever witnessed in a combat leader.”
Femoyer’s name joined the ranks of those whose sacrifice defines the highest standard of service.
The Legacy He Left Behind
Robert Femoyer’s final fight is a lesson etched in blood and duty.
Courage is not the absence of pain or fear. It is the hard choice to bear them for something greater.
His story reminds veterans and civilians alike of what it means to stand unbroken.
Even when the body fails, spirit persists.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” — 2 Corinthians 4:16
Femoyer's sacrifice is a call to relentless faith and fidelity—each transmission he sent became the lifeline for others. Each breath drawn through shattered lungs carried a promise: that no sacrifice is in vain.
His voice, crackling through the smoke, still echoes.
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