Tribute to a great American

Editor's note: Another General in the Property Rights Army has fallen. Bob died April 26, 2002, at his home in Lubec, Maine, at 80. He fought vigorously, and effectively to save the Maine forests from government take-over. He fought to stay well as long as he could. The last time we spoke, a few days before his death, he said "...keep it up; I'll be watching from the other side."

By Henry Lamb

Well before most of our readers were even born, Robert Owen (Bob) Voight, was defending the principles of freedom at the controls of a B-24, flying bombing raids over Germany. His long and eventful life is a demonstration of how America inspires greatness, and how its people make America great.

Woodrow Wilson was still grieving over the defeat of the League of Nations in the U.S. Senate when Bob entered the world in Canton, Ohio, on August 26, 1921. Bob was just entering his teen years when the nation was devastated by depression. At eighteen, he found work as a Fuller Brush Salesman.

For those who can't remember that far back, a Fuller Brush Salesman carried a sample case full of brushes of various sizes and shapes, and sold them door-to-door on commission. No sale, no bucks. In retrospect, it is not surprising that Bob became the star salesman in a three-state region within two years.

In his spare time, he began his quest for an eventual B.S. in Electronics, with a correspondence course from a school in Chicago. He entered college in Wheeling, West Virginia in 1941, and by the

B-24 "Liberator"

summer of 1942, was one of the first television engineers in the country.

Pearl Harbor changed things; Bob joined the Army Air Corps in the summer of 1942. After a year of training, he was lead pilot of the 448^th Bomber Group, stationed in Norwich, England. He flew his first mission on Christmas eve, 1943.

Bob flew a B-24 "Liberator," nicknamed "Baby Shoes," the workhorse of WWII. Eighteen feet high, 63-feet long, with a wingspan of 110-feet, this airplane carried an 8,000 pound payload, and enough fuel to fly 3,000 miles. Each plane had four, two-gun turrets: top, belly, nose, and tail, and a crew of 10 men. More than 19,000 of these planes were used in the war. They were a ready target; most didn't survive.

Bob led 1000 planes in a raid over Berlin

Bob led twelve successful missions. On March 6, 1944, he led a thousand of these planes on a raid over Berlin.

Two weeks later, mission 13, on March 20th, he was leading another raid, when anti-aircraft fire hit the bomb-bay doors. The plane burst into flames. Fragments, and the crew,

One of many B-24s destroyed defending our freedom

scattered across the heavens.

"This is it," Bob recalls thinking, before he blacked out.

"The cold wind snapped me out of it," he remembers. He awakened, trapped in a fragment of the nose, hurtling through space.

"My foot was trapped in the rudder controls. Somehow I pulled my foot out of my boot, and then I fell free. I didn't know whether my chute was still there or not, but I shut my eyes and pulled the rip cord."

His chute opened in time for him to see pieces of "Baby Shoes" falling beneath him, and the remaining planes in his bomber group heading for the White Cliffs of Dover.

He hit the ground, badly injured, but alive. After six months in the hospital, he was placed in Stalag Luft III, where he remained until the Russians crossed the Elbe. The entire POW camp was moved to Mooseburg. Those who could walk, did. Bob, and other injured POWs were transported by train. He recalls first being bombed by English planes, then by American Planes, then watching P-51s strafe the train. Somehow, he made it, and stayed there until the war ended in 1945.

He could have come home, having paid his debt to his nation in full, but he didn't. Instead, he continued a 22-year career in the Air Force, rising to Lt. Colonel. His skill in electronics was in demand and he led cutting-edge development of the nation's radar system, in this country and in Europe. He helped develop NATO's radar defense system, and served a three-year stint at the Pentagon as Directorate of Communications, Radar Plans. He retired from the Air Force on December 4^th, 1962.

After a period of travel to Alaska, Norway and Sweden, where he met his wife Christie's relatives, he returned to begin a new career in the electronics industry. With homes in both Washington DC, and New York, he commuted regularly and ran successful operations in both cities, developing and producing electronic components for the military and industry.

In the early 1970s, Bob moved to Maine, expecting to slow down and smell the roses. He bought 350 acres with a mile-and-a-half of rugged shore line near Lubec. He and Christie enjoyed gardening, and learning how to hunt for lobster. They raised sheep. Bob's entrepreneurial urge, however, needed new enterprises. He set up an investment firm, and began publishing the "Boot Cove Investment Forecast," a monthly investment newsletter, which continued for twenty years. He set up a chain of Chiropractic Clinics; he created the Lubec Crafts Council, and opened an Art Gallery. This, after retiring from two previous careers.

In 1988, Bob discovered that the National Park Service wanted his land. Had the NPS known Bob, they probably would have looked elsewhere. Bob created the Maine Conservation Rights Institute (MECRI) in 1990, to help protect the private property rights of all Maine residents whose property was under siege by the government, operating at the behest of a coalition of environmental organizations.

The Environmental Conservation Organization was created in Chicago in 1988, for many of the same reasons. I met Bob when our two organizations discovered we were fighting the same war. We learned together, that the land acquisition and control policies of the federal government were initiated at the international level, and we began to formulate strategies to broaden the campaign.

Our first joint effort was what we called the "Sustainable Freedom Coalition" consisting of a few organizations that sponsored a conference in Kansas City in 1996. The conference theme was "The Global Environmental Agenda." Many of our colleagues in the property rights and resource-use movement thought we had fallen off the edge of the earth. We knew better, and plunged forward with our efforts.

I attended my first U.N. meeting in Geneva, Switzerland later that same year. For the first time, I realized just how strong the U.N. agenda was, and how fast it was moving. I also realized that there was virtually no effective voice in the United States speaking against this intrusion into our national sovereignty.

I called Bob from Geneva, and in an hour-long phone conversation, we designed the framework for a new organization that became Sovereignty International. Since that phone call, I have worked very closely with Bob, and have come to know him extremely well.

Lighthouse near Bob's property

I can pay no higher compliment to this great American than to say that Bob Voight was a good man. The razor-sharp criterion by which he made decisions, both in his personal life, and in his role as a policy advocate, was: is it right? Bob was not swayed by political influence or expedience; his first question on any proposed action is - what is the right thing to do?

His decisions were guided by deeply held principles. Those principles of freedom, enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, beamed through his advocacy decisions as brightly as the beacon shining from the lighthouse on the shoreline near his home.

His principles of morality arose from deeply held religious and philosophical convictions, constructed through years of study, and honed by practice and experience. I don't think I have ever met a person who worked so conscientiously to do right in every action. Bob Voight was a good man.

He was a stubborn man. Perhaps it was the depth of his convictions, but in a disagreement, he was as rigid as the rock cliffs that keep the Atlantic Ocean from his home. Our work together included the formation of the Property Rights Congress. This project introduced me to, not only his stubborn streak, but also to his gentleness. Our project required many hours of discussion over procedural issues, including many disagreements. From these discussions, and the resolution of our disagreements, I developed an enormous respect for the gentleman, as well as for his intellect and principles.

While enroute to board an airplane to attend a 1999 meeting of the board of directors of Sovereignty International, Bob and Christie were involved in a head-on automobile crash. Both were hospitalized for a time. Christie suffered a broken arm and leg among other injuries; Bob's injuries were not quite so severe. Since then, however, Bob's time has been more devoted to caring for Christie and attending other effects of having lived on this earth for 80 years.

Until the very end, he wrote editorials for the Bangor Daily News, and for the MECRI web site. His was a respected voice in the defense of property rights and of freedom. He was a great American, a good man - and my friend.