Robert Paul Tarnowski
Era: World War II
Military Branch: Army
TARNOWSKI, Robert P.
Robert P. Tarnowski was born on August 26th 1920 in Duluth, Minnesota.
He entered the Army May 1943.
Commisioned and served with the Medical Service Corps at the 305th General Hospital, 98th Evac Hospital, and 42nd General Hospital in the European and Pacific Theaters in the Philippines and Japan. His unit disbanded and the personnel were assigned to various units in the occupation of Japan.
He returned to the U.S. in August 1946.
Discharged in Reserve with the rank of Major in September 1946.
Source: Hometown Heroes: The Saint Louis County World War II Project, 319.
Mr. Tarnowski of Duluth, Minnesota was drafted into the Army in 1943. He later went to officer candidate school and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Hospital Corps.
He served in France and Germany with the 305th General Hospital Unit, 42nd General Hospital, including treating Germans who were prisoners of the Americans. They were mostly age 15 to 17 and members of the Hitler Youth.
His unit was then transferred to the Philippines and arrived on August 26, 1945, after the atomic bombs had been dropped on Japan but before it had surrendered. He then went to Japan on the hospital ship USS Comfort and served in Japan until the summer of 1946. His unit was disbanded and the personnel were assigned to various units in the occupation of Japan. He returned to the U.S. in August 1946.
He served in the Army Reserve from 1958 until 1967, retiring with the rank of Major. He met the woman who would become his wife while with the 305th. They were married in a military hospital in Japan on December 18, 1945.
He worked for Standard Oil as a salesman after the war. He entered the insurance business in 1957, working with the Dunning and Dunning, Firmine and F. I. Salter agencies in Duluth. He later worked for the H.R. Garrett office supply company and retired in 1985.
