Robert J. Kenning was born on November 3, 1919, in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio. He was the son of Herman Henry Kenning & Mary Magdalena Pfeiffer. He was a graduate of St. Aloysius Gonzaga Grade School & Elder High School - both in Cincinnati.

Robert enlisted in the Army Air Force and trained at Kelly AFB and Randolph AFB. He was serving in the 343rd Fighter Squadron, 55th Fighter Group, as a Second Lieutenant and Fighter Pilot at the time of his death.

On January 5, 1944, during an escort mission to Kiel, Germany, his aircraft was shot down by night fighter pilot Oberleutnant Rudolf Szardenings of the 5./NJG 3, who was flying Ju 88 C-6 D5+CN from Grove airfield. 2Lt Kenning bailed out at low altitude and was found dead 800m from his crashed aircraft with a broken skull. The aircraft crashed at 13:00 hours between the villages of Brøndum and Næsborg some seven kilometers southeast of Løgstør in Denmark. The body of Lt. Kenning was found 800 meters away from the wreck. On January 14, he was laid to rest in Frederikshavn cemetery. He was moved to the American cemetery at Neuville en Condron in Belgium by the US military on May 1, 1948, and reburied there. His final resting place is in the Saint Aloysius Gonzaga Church Cemetery, Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, USA, where he was reburied on February 23, 1949.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com, aviation-safety.net, www.station131.co.uk