Private First Class Robert "Bobby" L Colter Jr

Private First Class Robert L. “Bobby” Colter, Jr. was born on October 19, 1918 to Hazel and Robert L. Colter of 504 Easton Drive, Lakeland, Florida. Bobby graduated from Lakeland Senior High School on June 7, 1937. Bobby joined the Army Air Forces on October 8, 1940 and was assigned to the 91st Bombardment Squadron, 27th Bombardment Group. Bobby’s bombardment group was deployed to the Philippines just one week before the Imperial Japanese Army invaded on December 8, 1941, hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The American and Filipino armies fought the Japanese for four months under dire conditions and without reinforcements until Major General Edward P. King ordered their surrender on April 9, 1942. Bobby survived the eleven-day, 65 mile “Bataan Death March” north to Camp O’Donnell and then to the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp. Camp records indicate Bobby Colter succumbed to malaria and dysentery on July 28, 1942 at the age of 23. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency identified Bobby’s remains on September 25, 2023. Bobby was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. 

His brother Charles “Chuck” Colter shared fond memories of the two avid outdoorsmen fishing on local lakes and exploring the surrounding woods of Lakeland and Polk County. 

Bobby was survived by his parents, his brother Chuck Colter (Mary Ethel Colter), niece Sue Jean Jones (David L. Jones, III), grand nephew Matthew Jones (Cassidy Jones), grand niece Christen Bugarin (Matt Bugarin), and great-great nephews and nieces Henry Jones, Ainsley Jones, Ava Bugarin, Connor Jones, and Mila Bugarin. 

Bobby Colter’s re-interment ceremony will be held February 22, 2025 at 11 a.m. at Lakeland Memorial Gardens, 2125 Bartow Rd., Lakeland, FL 33801. Bobby will be laid to rest near his parents.