ROBERT A. FORD, JR., 1LT, USAF

Robert Ford, Jr. '53

Date of birth: October 22, 1930

Date of death: March 11, 1957

Age: 26

Lucky Bag

From the 1953 Lucky Bag:

ROBERT ABBOTT FORD, JR.

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Bob was born a rebel in Mississippi's capital city, Jackson. At the age of four he moved to Vicksburg, on the banks of the muddy Yazoo River. In his senior year in high school he was number one single on the tennis team and won the city boys doubles with Clyde Brackin. That Fall he entered Georgia Tech as a freshman and was admitted to the rebel Kappa Alpha Order. In '49 Bob entered the Naval Academy on a college certificate with a Congressional appointment. At the Academy he competed in rifle and tennis. Bob was an engineer at heart and plowed and sloshed his way through Bull and Dago. He wanted just two things ... to marry and to fly.

ROBERT ABBOTT FORD, JR.

Vicksburg, Mississippi

Bob was born a rebel in Mississippi's capital city, Jackson. At the age of four he moved to Vicksburg, on the banks of the muddy Yazoo River. In his senior year in high school he was number one single on the tennis team and won the city boys doubles with Clyde Brackin. That Fall he entered Georgia Tech as a freshman and was admitted to the rebel Kappa Alpha Order. In '49 Bob entered the Naval Academy on a college certificate with a Congressional appointment. At the Academy he competed in rifle and tennis. Bob was an engineer at heart and plowed and sloshed his way through Bull and Dago. He wanted just two things ... to marry and to fly.

Loss

Robert was lost on March 11, 1957 when his F-86 jet crashed near Kunsan Air Base, Korea. He was a member of the 311th Fighter Squadron.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Robert graduated from Carr Central High School in Vicksburg in 1948. At Georgia Tech, he was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order.
He earned his wings at Greenville Air Force Base, and did his primary training at Graham Air Base in Marianna, Florida.
His father Robert was an electrical engineer. His mother was Evalyn.

From the Bob Ford Memorial:

Bob Ford – Christian husband, father, son, brother – went to Korea as an officer and pilot in the United States Air Force to protect our freedom, to protect our nation, to protect our children’s future. On March 11, 1957, he lost his life when his F86F jet fighter-bomber plane crashed.
…
Bobby, a midshipman at the United States Naval Academy, and his roommate, Fred Mann, invited Bobby’s cousin, Ruth, to Annapolis for the Naval Academy’s June Week celebration. This is graduation time and the first time that 4th Classmen can have dates. Ruth invited her good friend and classmate at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, Elizabeth “Libby’ Patterson, to go as Bobby’s date for June Week. These photographs were taken on Bobby and Libby’s first date that June Week, 1950.
…
June Week, the year before graduation, the 2nd Classmen get their class rings. Then, the rings are christened in the Waters of the Seven Seas, which they bring in for the occasion. The Waters of the Seven Seas truly are from the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, the Caribbean Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Indian Ocean. And they put water from the the Severn River in the basin also. I also got my miniature with a diamond in it. It is my engagement ring and I still wear it. My ring was also christened.

He was married to Elizabeth "Libby", who did not remarry and buried together in Arlington National Cemetery.

He was also survived by two children. He had "been selected to take aeronautical engineering postgraduate work at the University of Illinois." (Information from May 1957 issue of Shipmate.)

Photographs

10th Company; Bob is the midshipman back row, center
"Bob and Libby's first date, June Week 1950."
Ring dance
Wedding photo, June 6, 1953
Wedding photo, June 6, 1953
"Marianna Christmas Party December 1953. Christmas party with other pilots-in-training and their wives. From left to right, Clarke and Catherine, John and Elaine Axley (hosts), Bobby and Libby."
Summer training 1951
"Bobby, after he received his wings in Greenville, MS. This photograph was taken for the local newspaper, August 1954."
"Bobby, as forward observer, calling an air strike on target. K55, Osan Air Base, Korea – 1956" [Note this must have been a practice target; the Korean War was over for three years by 1956]