Robert John Meder (August 23, 1917 – December 1, 1943) was a lieutenant in the United States Army Air Forces who participated in the Doolittle Raid.

[2] On November 22, 1940, he enlisted in the Aviation Cadet Program of the U.S. Army Air Corps and was commissioned a second lieutenant and awarded his pilot wings on July 12, 1941.

Following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the 17th BG immediately began anti-submarine patrols off the coast of Oregon and Washington.

Running low on fuel due to the early launch of the raid, the B-25s failed to reach any of the designated safety zones in China.

Second Lieutenant William J. Dieter (bombardier) and Sergeant Donald E. Fitzmaurice (gunner) drowned when the aircraft ditched into the sea, while Meder, Hallmark and navigator Chase Nielsen managed to swim ashore.

[4][5] On April 27, as they tried to reach safety with the help of friendly local Chinese, all three men were captured by Japanese troops and interred as POWs in Shanghai, along with crew of the sixteenth bomber.

[11] An extremely compelling story of Meder's experience is related in the 1947 book, Deadline Delayed in a chapter titled "Tea and Ashes" by NBC's Irene Kuhn, a member of the Overseas Press Club of America.