Lucien Bob Shuler was born January 3, 1920, in Griffin, Georgia.  He attended Griffin public schools and Harris College, then taught vocational agricultural courses and coached high school football, before joining the Army Air Corps on August 4, 1941.  He became an Aviation Cadet on December 7, 1941, the “Day that will live in Infamy” as proclaimed by then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in response to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces.

Cadet Shuler trained in the Air Corps’ Western Command, graduating as a 2nd Lieutenant from Stockton Army Air Base, Stockton, California. After  combat training in fighters with the 20th Fighter Group at Morris Field, NC, he was transferred in August 1942, to Wheeler Field, Hawaii, where he flew with the 15th Fighter Group until February 1943, when he was sent to join the 44th Fighter Squadron, of the18th Fighter Group at the militarily strategic, Jap-infested island of Guadalcanal.  On  June 16, 1943 he shot down his first enemy aircraft, a Japanese Val, which crashed into the sea.  On August 1, 1943, he shot down a Japanese Zero in a head-on attack.  A melee on August 4 resulted in nine P-40s of the 44th fighting 25 Zeros at 12,000 feet over the ocean.  Shuler said he “picked out a Zero that had slid under us in a dive”, followed him down, and “fired a few bursts during the dive, but really got him good as he started to pull up.  I saw him hit the beach and explode.”

Climbing back up for altitude, Shuler tangled with two more Zeros, downing both of them in flames.  Spotting a lone Zero, he turned into it as it passed about 500 feet over him, he closed in and opened fire .. getting hits, but the Zero didn’t seem to want to burn.  He continued firing until the left wing and cockpit started to burn, and it dove down in flames, for his fourth victory of the day.  He tagged onto a 5th Zero, but his guns were by then out of ammunition, and he had to break off the attack.  His seventh and final authenticated victory occurred on Aug. 10, 1943 over New Georgia, but he reported several other damaged enemy that could not be verified. 

Promoted to Captain, Shuler accumulated 138 combat missions in P-40s and P-38s with the 44th Squadron, serving also as Flight Commander and Operations Officer, before being returned to the ‘States on January 18, 1944, and being transferred to Pinellas Army Air Field, St. Petersburg, FL, where he served as a P-51c Instructor Pilot and Gunnery Officer until the end of the war in August 1945.  He married Barbara Fay Bedingfield in Dublin, GA, and when he left active Air Force duty, they settled in Macon, GA, where Shuler continued his college education, receiving a B.A. in English at Mercer Univ., in 1948, while remaining in the USAF Reserve component.  He was recalled to active duty in September 1949, as an F-51 Instructor Pilot at Craig AFB, AL.

When the Korean War erupted in late June 1950, Shuler was soon transferred to Pusan, South Korea where he once again joined his former WW-II  Group, the 18th Fighter-Bomber Group ... this time becoming part of the 67th Fighter-Bomber Squadron.  During the following year he flew 100 successful, but extremely dangerous low-altitude close-support and interdiction missions throughout North and South Korea, as Flight Commander and Operations Officer, destroying valuable enemy troops, arms and equipment before it could be brought to bear against our defending United Nations forces. 

When he left Korea after completing his second combat tour, Shuler had accumulated a total of 238 combat missions in two wars, comprising more than 500 combat hours against the Japanese, North Korean and Communist Chinese enemies.  He had been awarded three Distinguished Flying Crosses, twenty-three Air Medals, two Presidential Unit Citations and countless campaign medals and battle stars.

In late 1951 he was transferred to Scott AFB, IL, then in July 1952 to Oklahoma  State University where he served as assistant professor of Aerial Science, until he returned once again to the Orient and served in Japan from October 1955 to June 1958, after which he transferred to Vandenberg AFB, CA, and became 1st Strategic Missile Division Safety Officer.   In March 1959 Major Shuler moved to Seymour-Johnson AFB to serve almost five years as Commandant of Strategic Air Command’s 8th Air Force NCO Academy, then Commander of the 99th Refueling Squadron followed by attendance at the prestigious Air War College at Maxwell AFB, AL.  Then after a three year stint at Manchester, England, Colonel Shuler returned to Virginia Tech University as head of their Air Force ROTC program, before finally retiring from active military duty after 30 years of dedicated Air Force service.

Following retirement in 1973, Colonel Bob Shuler, Barbara Fay and their family returned to Dublin, GA, where he resided until his death in March 2001, following an extended stroke-induced illness.

One time in Korea, a young Lieutenant Barber recalled that he had been selected to lead their flight of four F-51 Mustangs on a stressful, low altitude, heavy weather, combat mission against the enemy, in far North Korea, while Shuler the responsible, assigned flight leader flew on his wing to check performance.  Barber reported that he made several ‘royal screw-ups’, but it turned out that none of the flight was hit by enemy ground fire, and upon landing, Captain Shuler, came over to the worried young Lieutenant, put an arm over his shoulder and said: “Ken, that was a pretty good flight, and you did good.”  Barber later said “I loved that man .. he was a true leader, and I would fly combat with him any where.”