Asbury Veteran: Bob Edgin (deceased 2013)
Army Air Force
ROBERT J. EDGIN
Born and raised in Mt. Union, PA, Bob is the second oldest of twelve children (seven brothers and four sisters). During the first two years of World War II (1943-44) Bob was deferred from the US Military twice because of working on the family Dairy Farm.
In 1945, at age 22, Bob was drafted into the Army Air Force. He reported to the Induction Center in New Cumberland, PA for his physical and testing, then to Texas for 8 weeks of Basic Training. After Basic he was sent to Kessler Field, Mississippi for 6 weeks of Aircraft Mechanic Training and was assigned to a special school where he worked on the A-26 Dive Bomber. After completion of his training, Bob was “shipped” by train from Mississippi to Oaklyn Army Air Force Base in San Francisco. (Bob remembers a five day stop along the way in Salt Lake City, Utah where he and a group of fellow soldiers attended the then new movie, “Gone With the Wind”.)
It was during this period of Bob’s service that Japan surrendered. After the war Bob learned that he was part of the force preparing to invade Japan. President Truman’s decision to drop the Atomic Bomb was the reason Japan surrendered.
From Oaklyn Army Air Force Base Bob was shipped to the South Pacific---Manila, in the Philippine Islands. He was assigned to an Air-Sea Rescue Boat (similar to a PT boat) to rescue US Servicemen from a downed plane or a bail-out. Bob served there for 8 months.
In 1946 PFC Robert Edgin returned to the US and was discharged in December from Ft. Dix, NJ. He returned to his family and the farm in 1947, was employed at a local brick plant and worked the farm, too.
In June, 1947 at age 24, Bob married Edna, age 19, at the Christian Missionary Alliance Church. They lived in a small house in Mt. Union, PA until 1953 when they moved to Summerville, NJ. Employed as a delivery man by Buckeye Pipe Line Company in Linden, NJ he shipped products via pipeline to Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. When laid off due to automation, Bob was hired by Amerada Hess Oil and Chemical Co. in Pennsauken, NJ as a Gauger and Expediter (receiving and shipping products). He retired in 1983 with twenty-six years with oil companies.
Bob and Edna had four children—(Karen and Elaine, born in Mt. Union, Lori in Levittown and Bob in Willingboro), six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. They were married 62 years in 2009.
