ROBERT C. GARLAND, born November 14, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois. Attending Maine Township High School, he lettered in Diving and Golf all 4 years in addition to being the Illinois State Junior Skeet Champion from 1938 to 1941.

He enlisted in The United States Army Cavalry on December 12, 1942 and shortly thereafter transferred to the Army Air Corps. Primary training was in Pine Bluff, Arkansas in PT-19s, Basic Training at Independence, Kansas in BT-14s and he graduated on May 24, 1944 as a 2nd Lt. (class 44-E) from Advanced Flying School at Moore Field, Mission, Texas, flying the AT-6.

Bob then took P-40 transitional training prior to being assigned to a P-47 school at Strother Field, Winfield, Kansas. From there he was transferred to Wendover Army Air Base, Wendover, Utah, where he completed his P-47 Training Program. (Shortly thereafter, Wen- dover was used as the training base for the Hiroshima A-Bomb crew.)

In January, 1945, Garland's group was assigned to the SWPA being first stationed at Nadzab, New Guinea where he flew missions in the P-47, bombing and strafing areas around Lae and Hollandia.

The legendary "Thunder-Jug" was at that time about to be replaced in the Pacific by the P-51. Garland ferried a brand new Mustang, a fighter he had never flown before, 1700 miles from Biak Island, near New Guinea to the Philippines where he joined the 5th Air Force, 348th Fighter Group, 460th Fighter Squadron.

In March of 1945, the war was centered in the mountains north of Manilla and Garland flew a total of 52 ground support missions during that campaign. It was during this period that the 348th received a Presidential Citation for dropping more ton age of bombs in one 30 day period than any other single group up to that time including the heavy bomb groups in the Pacific.

For his personal efforts Garland was awarded the Air Medal with 4 Battle Stars. In August 1945, 1st Lt. Garland was assigned to the 5th Air Force Headquarters on Okinawa and later in Tokyo as the Commanding Officer of the Air-Sea Rescue Group Headquarters. He then returned home where he was separated from the service March 16, 1946.

After graduating in 1949 from the University of Denver, Bob moved into the Radio-TV broadcasting field and was associated with the cowboy movie star, Gene Autry, for 20 years after which he formed his own advertising agency, The Garland Agency, Inc. In 1969, he became the Arizona Franchisee for Far- rell's Ice Cream Parlour Restaurants where he is today the President of Garland Enter- prises.

Garland met Jeanne Adele Lusby while attending the University of Arizona. They were married in 1948 and have 4 children: Susan, Elizabeth, Richard and Robert and three grandchildren.