Robert G. Emmens was born on July 22, 1914. He graduated from Medford High in Oregon in 1931.  The son of a physician, Emmens attended the University of Oregon for three years studying medicine.  He was forced to leave college in 1934, after his father passed away, taking a job with the J.C. Penney department store company.  It was during this time that he discovered and cultivated a love for aviation, earning his private pilot’s license.

Emmens enlisted in the military on Feb. 23, 1937, after seeing in a newspaper advertisement that the U.S. Army Air Corps was looking for pilots.  He trained as a bomber pilot at Randolph Field and Kelly Field, Texas, earning his wings as an Army pilot in Feb. 1938.  

His first assignment was to the 17th Bomb Group at March Field, California, where Emmens flew A-17, B-18, B-23, and B-25 bombers.  During the first few years of his military career, he also served stints at McChord Field, Washington, and at  Pendleton Field, Oregon.  

Soon after the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor which thrust the United States into World War II, the 17th Bomb group was selected for a top-secret mission. The group was given the task of carrying out an aircraft carrier-based attack flying B-25 bombers against the Japanese homeland   The 17th was chosen because at the time it was the most experienced B-25 unit in the Army Air Forces.

Initially dubbed the 1st Special Aviation Project, this attack would later become more famously known as the “The Doolittle Raid”, after it’s leader and famed pilot, then Lt. Col. James “Jimmy” Doolittle.

Emmens was not initially selected to participate in the raid.  He was first sent to South Carolina for additional training.  When the 17th experienced a problem with one of the B-25s that was to take part in the mission, then Lt. Emmens was picked to fly a replacement bomber to California, which would then be loaded onto the USS Hornet aircraft carrier.  

Emmens was the second officer on the ferry mission, serving with pilot Capt. Ed York.  After arriving in California, the two pilots lobbied Doolittle convincing him to allow them to participate in the raid.  Despite not having any training in the short takeoff maneuvers needed to launch a B-25 from an aircraft carrier, they were successful in this endeavor and assigned to the mission.

On the morning of April 18, 1942, again flying in the second seat, Emmens helped York launch the B-25 from the USS Hornet, taking off from the 8th position out of 16 total bombers. The approach to the target was largely uneventful.  Flying as low as the terrain would allow, it was not until the attack group was approximately 16 miles from Tokyo until the first Japanese aircraft were spotted.  

The B-25s observed 9 fighters flying in 3-ship formations, but fortunately for the Doolittle Raiders, the fighters did not engage.  As they approached their intended target, a steel mill and aircraft factory in southern Tokyo, the bomber climbed to an altitude of 1200-1500 feet.  Unable to locate the primary target, they attacked secondary targets north of the city releasing their ordnance on a cluster of factories, power plants, and rail yards.

Running low on fuel, the pilots realized that their B-25 would never make the planned landing site in China.  They opted instead to land their bomber in the Soviet Union, which was closer.   They set their aircraft down in a large field outside the port city of Vladivostok.  

The entire crew, which included along with the two pilots a navigator, bombardier and engineer, were immediately interned by the Soviets because at that time, though allied with the United States in the fight against Germany and Italy, the Soviet Union was not yet at war with Japan having signed a non-aggression pact with them in 1941.  Emmens aircraft was the only one from the Doolittle Raiders to have landed in the Soviet Union.

During the nearly 13 months of confinement that Emmens spent under house arrest as an internee in the Soviet Union, he became fluent in the Russian language.   He and the rest of the crew also suffered from malnutrition, dysentery and other medical issues due largely to the war time conditions imposed on the Soviet Union by the conflict in Europe.  Not wanting to spend the remainder of the war in such miserable settings, the crew decided to escape.  

With the help of a smuggler from Turkmenistan, who was paid off with $250 worth of poker winnings ($4500 in 2024 dollars), in May 1943 the crew escaped across the Soviet border into Iran where they made contact with a British consulate near the border.  The British facilitated a transfer to India from where the crew was repatriated and flown back to the United States.  They landed in Miami, Florida, on May 29, 1943.

Following his return to the United States, Emmens attended Army Command and Staff College before serving stateside over the next two years as an operations officer and commander at the squadron and group levels in Florida and South Carolina.  For three months in late 1944, he served as the Deputy Base Commander for Greenville Army Air Base in South Carolina. 

Due to his ability to speak Russian, in December 1944, Emmens was sent to Romania as the American military air attaché following that country’s invasion and occupation by the Soviet Union.  After the war in Europe ended in 1945, Emmens remained at his post in Romania.  He eventually befriended the country’s King, providing the monarch with flying lessons.  

When the King was exiled by Soviet forces in January 1948 during the early stages of the Cold War, Emmens piloted the aircraft that flew the deposed monarch out of Romania.  In 1949, Emmens released a book about his time spent in captivity in the Soviet Union titled: “Guests of the Kremlin”.

Returning to the United States, Emmons served at the Pentagon until 1950, cross-training as an intelligence officer.  His next assignment was to Salzburg, Austria, followed by a stint with Tactical Air Command (precursor organization to today’s Air Combat Command) at Langley AFB, Virginia.  In June 1955, Emmens was selected to serve as the commander of the 342nd Fighter Wing at the newly opened Myrtle Beach AFB, South Carolina.  He received promotion to full colonel in 1956.  

From 1958 to 1961, Emmens was sent to Japan, again serving as an air attaché.  He joined OSI in 1961, graduating from Basic Investigator Course 61-E on December 16, 1961.  His first and only assignment directly with OSI was as the commander of District 20 at McChord Air Force Base, Washington, from Sept. 1961 to Aug. 1963.  

Emmens retired from military service at the rank of colonel on June 10, 1964, after more than 27 years of active-duty service.  

After leaving the military, Emmens returned to his hometown of Medford, Oregon, where he began a second career working as a stockbroker and also in real estate.  Emmens kept in close contact with many of the Doolittle Raiders and he attended nearly every one of the Raider’s reunions over the subsequent decades.  Robert G. Emmens passed away on April 2, 1992, at the age of 77.  

For his efforts during the Doolittle Raid, Emmens was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.  His citation reads in part: “While participating in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland on 18 April 1942, Lieutenant Emmens with 79 other officers and enlisted men volunteered for this mission knowing full well that the chances of survival were extremely remote and executed his part in it with great skill and daring. This achievement reflects high credit on himself and the military service.”

Emmens’ other military decorations included the Chinese Army, Navy, Air Corps Medal, Class A, 1st Grade, and the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure.