Robert Metzger
Nov. 10, 1918-July 23, 1952
Set Rites for airman Killed in Brazil Crash
Funeral services will be held here Saturday for Capt. Robert E. Metzger, 22, former Niles resident and Air Force veteran who was killed in an airplane crash in Brazil, July 23, 1952.
Services will be held at 3:30 p.m. at the Kiger funeral home. Burial will be in Silverbrook cemetery with full military rites at graveside. Metzger’s body is to arrive here tonight.
Surviving are Metzger;s parent, Benjamin Metzger, of Buchanan and Mrs. Gladys Drudy of Dowagiac; two children, Robert Jr. and Karl in Meridian, Miss.; a sister, Mrs. Carl Eliason of Niles and a brother, Keith of Chicago.
Metzger was born Nov. 10, 1918, in Galien. He lived in Niles and Dowagiac and had spent the last year in an sea rescue working South American. He was killed while on a air sea rescue training mission, when a B-17 bomber and a small training plane crashed in mid air. Six Brazilians were also killed in the crash.
After graduating from Niles high school, Metzger became one of the first World War II enlistees from this area. He served in the South Pacific, where he was forced to parachute from a plane, and later served with the Army of occupation in Germany.
Submitted by family member; publication details unknown