B-24 emergency landing in Dubendorf, Switzerland March 24th, 1945
After the war, co-founder and president of Swiss-Internees Assoc. Inc.
15th Air Force, 459th Bomb Group, 756th Squadron, B-24J, Serial No. 44-41075 After an attack on Munich with resulting propeller problems and increasing engine temperatures, the crew decided to conduct an emergency landing on March 24th, 1945. This was a very special day for Robert (Bob) A. Long : first, the emergency landing in Dubendorf and later the news that his daughter Judy Jeannette Long was born on that very day in the USA. Robert (Bob) A Long founded the Swiss-Internees Association Inc. in 1986. He set off to seek more Swiss Internee veterans with a few of the USAAF Swiss Internee veterans he had already known of. He thereby started recording and rehabilitating the history of Swiss internees. The Swiss Internee veterans met up for a three-day Swiss Internees Reunion every year from 1986 until 2005, either in the USA or in Switzerland. The USAAF Swiss Internees Reunion was held in a different state each year, in order to give every member a chance to participate. Robert (Bob) A. Long was in Switzerland many a time; he organised the Swiss Internees Association Inc. trips to Switzerland in 1993, 1996 and 1998. Up to 20 UASAF Swiss Internees veterans and their spouses took part in these trips, visiting crash- and emergency landing sites and the places they had been detained. Robert (Bob) A. Long supported the establishment of the B-17 Museum in Utzenstorf energetically. Copilot F/O Robert A. Long was in Switzerland for the last time in 2008, with his daughter Judy Jeannette Long-Kohler. On January 20th, 2011, Copilot Robert (Bob) A. Long took his last flight. R.I.P.
