Robert Morgan

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For the US Senator from North Carolina, please see Robert B. Morgan.

Robert K. Morgan (July 31, 1918 - May 15, 2004) was a United States Air Force colonel and pilot, from Asheville, North Carolina, and the commander of the B-17 Memphis Belle during World War II.

Morgan attended the Wharton School of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania and entered the Army Air Corps in 1940. He won his pilot wings and was commissioned a second lieutenant December 12, 1941, then after advanced training at Walla Walla, Washington, was assigned to the 91st Bomb Group as a B-17 pilot. Morgan went overseas as part of the original group of combat crews and flew 25 combat missions over Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France, between November 7, 1942, and May 17, 1943.

The Memphis Belle was the first heavy bomber in the Eighth Air Force to complete a full 25-mission combat tour. In those missions, all of which were daylight raids, the Memphis Belle flew 148 hours, dropped over 60 tons of bombs, and had every major part of the plane replaced at least once. Morgan and his crew were the subjects of a 1944 film documentary, Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress.

Promoted to major, Morgan flew a second combat tour in the Pacific Theater, commanding the 869th Bomb Squadron, 497th Bomb Group of the Twentieth Air Force. Flying B-29's from Isley Field, Saipan, he completed 26 missions over Japan until sent home on April 24, 1945. On November 24, 1944, he led the first mission of the XXI Bomber Command to bomb Japan, 110 aircraft of the 73rd Bomb Wing to Tokyo, with wing commander Brig. Gen. Emmett O'Donnell as co-pilot. His B-29 was nicknamed Dauntless Dotty, after his first wife.

Among his military awards were the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, and the Air Medal with ten oak leaf clusters. He retired from the Air Force Reserve in 1965.

In 2001 Morgan published his autobiography, The Man Who Flew the Memphis Belle: Memoirs of a World War II Bomber Pilot, co-written with Ron Powers (ISBN 0-525-94610-1).

Col. Morgan was hospitalized April 22, 2004 with a fractured neck after falling from an entry ladder while getting into a B-17 following an air show at Asheville Regional Airport, in his hometown of Asheville, NC. Ironically, the B-17 he was entering at the time of his accident had been painted with the "nose art" and other markings of his beloved Memphis Belle. Col. Morgan passed away at Mission Hospitals on May 15, 2004 from complications to his injuries, including pneumonia.