Robert (Bob) Slane (1923-2011) was born in Ludlow, Colorado (near Trinidad) to Ralph and Addie Myrtle Roper Slane. Myrtle was Clyde Roper’s sister. Bob married Mary Elizabeth (Lee) Valentine and they had two children, Judy and Thomas.

Bob and Mary Elizabeth (Lee) Valentine Slane

He was a pilot in the Air Force during World War II, and was shot down and imprisoned by the Germans for nearly two years. He also survived a crash in 1956.

Obituary of Robert Slane

Robert M. “Bob” Slane, a retired Air Force pilot and colonel who survived three crashes or shoot-downs in his military career, as well as almost two years captivity in one of the most brutal German stalags, died early Wednesday at his home in Shreveport after a lengthy illness. He was 87.
A Colorado native, Slane served 33 years in the military, retiring at Barksdale Air Force Base, where his last assignment was as commander of the 2nd Combat Support Group from September 1972 through July 1974. He was one of the last people to hold the title “base commander,” at a time when Barksdale had separate facility and wing commanders.
Retired LSUS journalism professor and former Communications Department head Dalton Cloud was a friend and neighbor 35 years and edited Slane’s 2006 memoir, “Journey to Freedom and Beyond.”
“There wasn’t anything about Slane that was affected at all,” Cloud said. “He remembered his military experiences with a fondness that is unbelievable. If he could have joined the service two years ago, he would have gone back in. He truly was an individual who loved the military and loved his country.”
Slane and his wife, Mary Lee, first were at Barksdale from 1954 to 1964, where he was a B-47 and B-52 aircraft commander.
It was while he was at Barksdale that Slane survived one of the most horrific incidents in his career. He was aircraft commander of a B-47 on a routine training mission 30,000 feet over Canada on Nov. 30, 1956, when the airplane experienced hydraulic and system failures that put it into a deadly spin. Slane ejected, but three other crew members died in the crash.
In his memoir, Slane noted his anguish on losing crewmates. But he also noted that as the sole survivor of at least six B-47 crashes involving spin, his testimony was able to help correct mechanical problems and prevent future similar accidents with the medium bomber.
“Perhaps I can gain some solace in that I was able to describe the events that occurred and thus contributed to a solution that may have saved others,” he wrote.
His son Tom Slane remembers the day his father crashed in Canada. He was 6 at the time.
“I can remember those guys who came to the door, I can hear it just like it was yesterday, my mother saying ‘Oh no.’ It took me until later in life to realize what a wonderful person he was, the fabulous things he did.”
Slane was a participant in costly and bloody B-17 raids over ball-bearing factories at Schweinfurt, Germany. Shot down over France with his B-17 after the Oct. 14, 1943, Schweinfurt mission, he was imprisoned at camps that included the infamous Stalag Luft III. He escaped, was recaptured, and finally as liberated by Lt. Gen. George Patton’s tankers in April 1945. He also survived an initial crash in an England beet field four days before his Schweinfurt shoot-down when his B-17, named “Sir Baboon McGoon,” found itself tanks-dry after a mission.
After his military retirement, Slane worked two years as executive director of the Caddo-Shreveport Metropolitan Planning Commission. He resigned in April 1979 following a dispute with MPC members after he called for public hearings on matters he believe members were short-circuiting through necessary procedural steps in projects in which they had an interest.
In addition to his widow and son, Slane is survived by two grandchildren. He was predeceased by a daughter, Judy Slane, who died in 1977.

Here is an account of the plane crash in 1956 from the Shreveport Times:

The local base’s third B-47 crash occurred just after Thanksgiving 1956. Barksdale B-47 tail No. 52-3360 of the 301st Bomb Wing, commanded by Major Robert Slane, was deep into an ORI (operational readiness inspection) mission, flying over Canada and preparing to refuel, when the airplane experienced aileron power unit problems and went into an uncontrollable spin. Slane ordered a bailout and survived, but the other crew members — pilot 2nd Lt. Richard J. Martin, copilot 2nd Lt. Donald S. Petty and observer 1st Lt. Max Workman — perished.

Slane, who later rose to the rank of colonel, served as one of the last base commanders at Barksdale before that task was rolled into the duties of the host wing commander. He also penned “Journey to Freedom and Beyond,” a book about his wartime and peacetime military flying, in which he expressed his continued regret and remorse over the loss of his friends in the crash.

From the Shreveport Times 3/27/2016

Memoir of Robert Slane

Robert Slane

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