Texas Fowler
The story of my dad, Lt. Robert L. Fowler, a co-pilot on a B-17 bomber in WWII
Texas Fowler
The story of my dad, Lt. Robert L. Fowler, a co-pilot on a B-17 bomber in WWII
Robert Louis Fowler
This is my dad, Robert Louis Fowler from Hamlin, Texas. As a kid, I knew him as a farmer, fisherman, cub scout troop leader, civic leader, businessman, dad, but not as a veteran, bomber pilot, or former prisoner-of-war. By the time I got to high school, he would take a briefcase full of his memorabilia and speak to the Civics class about his WWII experience. I was the most proud and attentive student in the classroom, and I learned some details about things I knew vaguely about before. I was able to get a few more stories out of him as I got older, but I still didn’t quite grasp the historical significance of his experience until later. He passed unexpectedly at the age of 79 on the evening of January 1, 2000, and then I had to start going through his things. With each discovery I would gasp and cry because I just wanted ask him about what I had found. Many questions were answered with research, but many more remained. TexasFowler is about putting all that I know about his experience in one place.
Why the name, “TexasFowler”? My dad told me that his B-17 crew and later his roommates at Stalag Luft 1 called him “Tex,” because he was the only one there from Texas. Texas Fowler sounded better so here we are.
Please look around by clicking on the pages at the top, or bottom, for a closer look. You'll see what it was like to be shot down, a prisoner of war in Germany, and in the middle of the chaos that happened at the end of the war.
It's our duty to remember.
Cover Photo
Photo taken September 27, 1943 by Sgt. Stanley M. Smith, a waist gunner on aircraft No. 30783 "The Stork Club." View of Boeing B-17F Flying Fortresses of the Eighth Air Force, 390th Bomb Group (my dad's bomb group), in flight somewhere over Europe; contrails (vapor trails) made by their escort fighters curve through the sky above the formation. The aircraft centered in the photo is B-17F No. 23329 named "Skippy."
This image or file is a work of a U.S. Air Force Airman or employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image or file is in the public domain in the United States.