Captain Robert L Metzger (1924-1995)'s Page

In Memory of Captain Robert L Metzger (1924-1995)

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At 8:57am on August 13, 2008, Ed Rogelstad said…: I received this letter from Ralph M. Tucker
I was Exec when Bob was C.O., and I was C.O. when Bob was Air Group Commander. I knew him very well; and I have a number of pictures of him performing his role as C.O. and Air Group Commander. Let me summarize briefly: Bob had a clot in his leg shortly after he left the Air Group and came to the joint staff in Washington. One leg was removed above the knee. He and Camille lived in the house in Falls Church they had owned for 20 years or more. Bob got a job with Texas Instruments, and hired some friends from the Navy. Harry Jones among the officers and some chiefs, He rose to a fairly high position in middle management. He was also very active in the Rotary Club and became a leader there. In his church he was super as a fund raiser and he kept his church going for several years. As you know, Bob had a very outgoing personality, was very well-liked and respected everywhere he went. He never spoke of his misfortune in losing his leg and leaving the Navy just when he probably would have made admiral in a few years.
After establishing himself in Falls Church and developing an unusually large and diverse set of friends and acquaintances, Bob had a massive stroke when he and Camille were on a trip to Florida to pick out a retirement residence. In a motel in Georgia...Camille had a hard time getting him home, having to hire a plane to take him to Bethesda. He was then sent to the Arlington rehab center for evaluation, where it was concluded he was too badly hurt by the stroke to be rehabbed. Bob spent the rest of his life in a nursing home a few blocks from his home, unable to speak, and totally disabled on one side. He had a lot of visitors as his many friends came to see him; and he was very well cared for by the ever-faithful Camille, and by Kathy, the wife of Jim Bergstrom, who had been Bob's OPs Officer in VS-34.
I knew Bob very well, and I admired him greatly. I never heard him make any reference to his personal misfortune. He was always upbeat and happy to see you if you came to visit. He had the stroke about 1989, when he was maybe 65; and died six years later. He was buried in Arlington with full military honors. I was among the many who attended the funeral. In total, he had around 23 or 24 years in the Navy, nearly that much in his post-Navy life, and 6 years in the nursing home. Bob was very fine man, a stand-up guy, who was admired and a friend to many people.
Joy and I have sold our house here in Sarasota, are now waiting to close, and preparing to move into Oak Hammock, a CCRC connected to the University of Florida in Gainesville. If you will contact me again after the first of the year I will give you many photos and tell you much more.
Sincerely
Ralph M. Tucker