Pfc. Robert L. Young was born in 1914.  He was the son of Thomas L. & Helen Young and grew up in Reading, Ohio and Somerset, Ohio.  After high school, he attended Findley College where he played basketball.

    In February 5, 1941, Robert was inducted into the U. S. Army in Cleveland, Ohio.  He was sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky where he joined C Company, 192nd Tank Battalion to bring the company up to full strength. At the time, the army attempted to use men from the home states of each company.  After training as a tank driver at Ft. Knox, he went on maneuvers with the battalion in Louisiana.

    Robert and the rest of the battalion learned that they were being sent overseas after the maneuvers.  After taking a train to San Francisco, the battalion sailed from Angel Island for the Philippine Islands.

    Robert arrived in the Philippines on Thanksgiving Day, 1941.  He and C Company spent the next two weeks preparing their tanks for use. 

    On December 8, 1941, Robert and the rest of C Company heard the news of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  The tankers were sent to the perimeter of the airfield to prevent the use of paratroopers by the Japanese.

    While having lunch, the tankers noticed planes approaching Clark Field.  At first, the thought they were American, but when the bombs began to explode around them, they knew the planes were Japanese.

    Robert was involved in numerous engagements against the Japanese.  During one engagement, C Company successfully destroyed a platoon of Japanese tanks. 

    It was at the Battle of Toul Pocket, the tanks of three of the letter companies of the 192nd were assigned the duty of helping the Filipino army wipe out the Japanese Marines.  The Japanese had landed troops behind the main line of defense on Bataan at Assyian Point.  The operation was a failure, and the Japanese found themselves surrounded behind the American lines.

    During this engagement Robert's tank was disabled when it hit a landmine causing the tank to throw a track.  Sgt. Emerson Smith, Pvt. Sidney Rattner, Pvt. Vernon Deck and Robert were trapped inside their tank.  A number of attempts to rescue the crew failed.  

    There are two stories as to what happened next.  In the first, the realizing that the tank could not be moved, the four crew members attempted to evacuate the tank.  As they were climbing out the Japanese threw grenades into the tank killing the crew.

    The second story is that after the tank was disabled, the crew refused to surrender, so the Japanese began filling the tank with dirt they were digging out from under the tank to make foxholes.  The Japanese planned to use the tank as cover.  The three soldiers suffocated in the tank as it was filled with dirt.

   This is the story that is believed to be true.  The tank was later recovered and turned over to empty the dirt out of it.  Upon doing this, the bodies of the tank crew members were recovered and buried.

    Pfc. Robert L. Young died when he suffocated inside his tank on February 2, 1942, near Agaloma.  According to Robert's headstone, he died on February 8th.  After the war, Robert's remains were returned to Somerset, Ohio, on October 12, 1948. After a funeral service, Robert was reburied in Union Cemetery in Somerset.