Veterans' Memorial Project

Robert Marion Brinker

Park Ridge, IL

World War II

College: Fine & Applied Arts

Graduation Year: Attended 1929

Service Branch: Navy

Rank: Commander

Date of Birth: 09/12/1910

Date of Death: 01/03/1946

Affiliations: Triangle Fraternity

Commander Brinker served with the U.S. Navy as commander of the submarine Grayling. He was missing in action since August, 1943, when the Grayling failed to return from a mission in the Sulu Sea and presumed to have died at that time. He left the University of Illinois to enter the Naval Academy, Annapolis, and graduated in 1934. He served aboard the battleship California, and before assuming command of the Grayling, was executive officer on a submarine which sank 21 Japanese ships. He is listed as Missing in Action or Buried at Sea on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila American Cemetery, Manila, Philippines. He was awarded the Purple Heart.

-submitted by Charles R. Hinman, Submarine Historian, and information taken from Illinois Alumni News, February, 1946, and Web site above

Further information: https://www.abmc.gov

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