For as long as Bob can remember he has been interested in the military. His father was a WW2 Veteran but he never talked about his experiences. As a youth, Bob and his friends were always playing war and building cabins with log walls forming forts. All of Bob’s friends’ fathers were also WW2 Veterans but they were just known to the kids as “Dad”. It wasn’t until much later in life that Bob realized that they were all heroes.
Shortly after he married his high school sweetheart, Bob enlisted in the United States Air Force (USAF). In the beginning, he never planned on the service being a career, but nearing the end of his first enlistment his father told him, “This is a good thing and you are crazy if you get out”. His father had had an unpleasant experience with the army in that he was denied commissioning twice because the President of the United States did not recognize Optometrists as Doctors. Thus, the comment made by his father surprised Bob. By his ninth year in the USAF Bob had a Bachelor’s Degree and applied for commissioning, which was granted. After completing twenty-one and a-half years in the Air Force, he retired as a Captain.
When Bob was growing up there was a book that sat on his father’s shelf. It had a German Swastika on the cover. Bob asked when he could read it and the answer from his father was always the same, “You will know it when the times comes”. In 2001 his father, Dr. John M. Dollar Jr, passed. Within months Bob realized the time was right and that book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by: William L. Shirer changed his view on the military and World War 2 (WW2) history. From that point on he couldn’t read or learn enough about WW2.
After retirement in 2014 from University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Altoona, PA, where he was an RN, Bob joined the Tyrone Area Historical Society. He now serves as its President and has researched and written many articles on Tyrone’s involvement in WW2 for the society’s newsletter. He has written and self-published a book, The Rest of the Story, based on twenty-nine personal interviews conducted with Tyrone, Pennsylvania, WW2 Veterans. The Long Journey Home has been his greatest, but most rewarding challenge. What project is next he doesn’t know, but he is hoping it will have something to do with Tyrone Servicemen.