Bethlehem native Dick Stiles remembers 1st Lt. Robert Pfeifle Wehinger's World War II service well. Stiles, 87, has been researching Wehinger's service records for several years. He is inspired by a family connection: Stile's late wife June was Wehinger's cousin and former Mayor Robert Pfeifle's granddaughter. Wehinger was also Mayor Pfeifle's grandson.

Wehinger served in the Army Air Force and flew 47 combat missions in both the P-40 War Hawk and P-51 Mustang. The last mission nearly cost him his life. He generally escorted B-29 bombing raids over the Japanese mainland during the last months of the war in the Pacific Theater.

Wehinger participated in four battles and campaigns in the Pacific Theater; Okinawa, Ie Shima, Kakeroma Shima and Japan. He earned the American Theater Ribbon, Victory Medal, Pacific Theater Ribbon with four stars, Purple Heart, Air Medal with seven clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross and Silver Star.

Injuries suffered on his final mission included a crease at the base of his scalp and on his shoulder and right knee, and his left ankle cord was severed. He returned home to the United States with those injuries.

Wehinger served in combat from Feb. 1, 1945, through the end of the war and was officially discharged June 27, 1946. Among the planes he flew on training missions were the B-24 Liberator, B-17 Flying Fortress, B-25 Mitchell, and B-29 Super Fortress bombers. For two months he also "instructed enlisted personnel in Basic Military Science," according to his 'Separation Qualification Record.'

In a letter dated June 15, 1945, from the Office of Commanding General Claire L Chennault, of Flying Tigers fame, Mayor Robert Pfeifle was informed that Wehinger was receiving the Silver Star and Distinguished Flying Cross. Chennault wrote about the Silver Star Medal:

"On the night of 30 April 1945, he single handedly shot and killed ten Japanese soldiers who were members of a patrol which were going to attack his air strip. Upon his meeting this patrol and killing the enemy with a pistol .45 cal. Colt, he broke the attack and thereby saved many of his fellow airmen."

Chennault also wrote about Wehinger's Distinguished Flying Cross:

"On 1 June 1945 he was on his 47th mission, which took him about ten miles south of Osaka. When, after his Fighter Group, the 44th, was intercepted by enemy fighter planes, Lt. Wehinger had shot down two enemy aircraft before he received wounds in several parts of his body from the guns of the enemy. Seriously wounded and his plane a total wreck he flew back to Okinawa and landed his plane without further damage to it."

Wehinger, born in 1925, was scheduled to graduate with the Liberty HS Class of 1944 but left school six months early to enlist in the Army Air Force. Stiles recalls that during World War II diplomas were given to seniors who withdrew from their senior year to go into the service. He also took a civics class with Wehinger and remembers that "Bob was only interested in getting into the service to fly."

After the war, Wehinger signed up for extended service in the Army Air Force when he became a flight engineer on a B-29. Wehinger received an appointment to go to West Point, but the appointment was rescinded after he buzzed girls dormitories at Amherst College in a hired plane.

Later Wehinger joined the Chinese Air Force as a volunteer and was shot down in the China Sea by Chinese communist forces.

After being rescued and upon return to Bethlehem, Wehinger married his first wife, Dolly, and they had two children, Debra and Dale. He worked at PPL in the office according to Stiles, and he also owned an insurance agency in the Quakertown area. After a divorce in the mid 1950s, he married Peggy, his second wife. They had no children and she remained faithfully at his side as the ravages of ALS took his life in 1976 at the age of 51.

Stiles recounts, "He was a young, vibrant guy with a really nice personality. Bobby was always around and always had stories to tell."