Robert Edward Femoyer

General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 35, May 9, 1945

Six weeks later, on November 2, 1944, he was the navigator of a B-17 Flying Fortress on a bombing mission over Merseburg, Germany, his bomber was struck by three antiaircraft shells and he was wounded. He was in pain and had significant blood loss, but refused morphine in order to keep his head clear while he continued to navigate the bomber for two and a half hours, changing course six times to avoid enemy antiaircraft fire. He remained alert though his pain was described as "almost beyond the realm of human endurance". Once the airplane was in safe airspace over the English Channel, Femoyer finally agreed to an injection of morphine; but thirty minutes after landing he died of wounds. His actions saved the lives of the entire crew. For his actions during this mission, he posthumously received the Medal of Honor. His body rests in Jacksonville, Florida.

Virginia Tech's Femoyer Hall is named for Second Lieutenant Femoyer, a member of the Class of 1944. Femoyer Hall was originally built as a residence hall in 1949, and then served as an academic building, housing the Naval ROTC unit at Virginia Tech as well as the Student Success Center. In October 2021 it was demolished due to an overwhelming maintenance backlog, and will be replaced by a new dorm housing the Corps of Cadets.

Femoyer joined the Enlisted Reserve Corps on November 11, 1942 and was called to active duty in February 1943. He took basic training at Miami Beach, Florida, aircrew training at the University of Pittsburgh, and became an aviation cadet at the Mississippi Institute of Aeronautics in Jackson but failed his pilot training. In 1944, he graduated from the Army Air Force (AAF) Flexible Gunnery School at Fort Myers, Florida, and the AAF Navigation School at Selman Field, Louisiana. From his training assignments, he went to the European Theater in September 1944, as a second lieutenant and was assigned to the 447th Bomb Group's 711th Bombardment Squadron.

Femoyer was from Huntington, West Virginia, an Eagle Scout, he attended Virginia Tech, from 1940 to 1943. A building at Virginia Tech is named in his honor.

Robert Edward Femoyer (October 31, 1921 – November 2, 1944) is one of only eleven known Eagle Scouts to receive the Medal of Honor; the others are Aquilla J. Dyess, Eugene B. Fluckey, Thomas R. Norris, Arlo L. Olson, Mitchell Paige, Ben L. Salomon, Britt Slabinski, Leo K. Thorsness, Walter Joseph Marm Jr. and Jay Zeamer, Jr. He served in the U.S. Army Air Forces and is the only navigator awarded the Medal of Honor.