Robert Allan Booth was born on June 25, 1922, in Waterbury, New Haven County, Connecticut. He was the son of Harold C Booth and Mabel Fairhurst Booth.

Robert volunteered for the U.S. Army in Hartford, Connecticut on 10 October 1942. Following training, he was a P-47 Thunderbolt pilot assigned to the 405th Fighter Squadron, 371st Fighter Group, U.S. Army Air Forces, World War II. On a cloudy day in October 1944, 1Lt Booth took off with eight other aircraft on a combat/humanitarian mission to bring food and medical supplies to a ground unit surrounded by German forces in southeast France. The 1st Battalion (the 'Lost Battalion') of the 36th Infantry Division from Texas (Texas National Guard, U.S. Army) had been without food for two days in the Vosges Mountains. He was flying his P-47D Thunderbolt fighter aircraft (serial #42-76477) in fourth position in Green Flight, carrying two 150-gallon wing tanks filled with supplies for the beleaguered troops below. The first three planes throttled up and over the clouds (instrument flight conditions). Booth's plane never made the rendezvous point above the clouds. Unable to make radio contact with Booth, the other planes aborted the mission and returned to base. According to a squadron report, 1Lt Booth was the 405FS's first member Killed in Action (October 27, 1944). The next day, an American search team discovered Booth's remains where he crashed in the hills outside of Val-d'Ajol.

Source of information: www.findagrave.com