Lt. Robert Douglas Sharp USAAF was born March 11, 1922 in Rutherford, New Jersey to John Ewing Sharp and Mary Elizabeth Goff. Bob attended Grover Cleveland, High School Caldwell, New Jersey. In the GCHS yearbook Bob was described as: "very tall and never appears to be in a hurry. He drives a nice green Ford that's as popular as he is. The GCHS Golf and Rifle teams rank as his sports interests and the only subject that he took that he ever liked was mechanical drawing. The greatest ambition now in Bob's life at present is to acquire a jalopy and tour the countryside for about two and then settle down ... maybe he is destined to be an architect?" Following his graduation, Bob quickly found work as an inspector for Curtis Propeller Division. After Pearl Harbor, Bob enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1942.
Due to keen intelligence and top Army Air Force aptitude test scores, Bob was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps. To pass the army entrance physical requirements (that excluded airmen over 6 feet four inches), Bob who was 6' 5" had to stoop and wear heelless shoes. Bob served as a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot with the 493rd Bomb Group, a unit of the Third Bombardment Division and flew 35 air combat missions over France and Germany.
