The prolific and popular military history writer Robert F. Dorr, who first published seven decades ago at age 16, today spends much of his time crafting notes of grace — messages of gratitude and love to friends and family he credits for helping him succeed in his work craft and in his life.
Dorr, a longtime Military Times columnist and author of 80 more than 70 books, is reaching out to acquaintances them with affection and humor that surely must comfort those troubled by the recent news that he has been diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme, a type of brain tumor that is always fatal, with one source giving expectancy rates of three to fifteen months, he told Air Force Times.
But Dorr, who served for nearly four years with the Air Force in Korea before separating in 1960 as an E-4 and beginning a long career as a State Department foreign service officer, has always been one to accentuate the positive, even in the most unlikely circumstances.
"Tuesday [was] day 85" since his symptoms first appeared, he said. "I'm in good spirits, buoyed by friends and family."
"If you're going to have something really bad happen to you, this is the way to go," he joked with Commemorative Air Force friends on Facebook. "There's no physical discomfort. I can eat all the Apple Fritters I want. People who never picked up the tab before are taking me to lunch."
Dorr had brain surgery Dec. 2 and is undergoing radiation therapy. "Brain surgery, radiation and chemotherapy are intended to address the fundamental problem: The tumor wants to get bigger while we want to it stay smaller," he told Air Force Times.
Yet the 76-year-old, who is married and has two sons, has hardly slowed down, having just published a crime novel and participating in almost daily chronicling as he chronicles for an ongoing blog series in which he honors people he appreciates as the most important influences in his life.
Several of those people are fellow writers, journalists and editors who served as teachers and mentors in helping him develop the skills necessary to be a good reporter and writer.
For Dorr, a native of Washington, D.C., the urge to write — especially about the Air Force and aviation — was irrepressible. His interest in the Air Force and airplanes began at age 5, he said. At 12, he used his paper route earnings to buy a typewriter and began writing stories about planes. He also began his collection of plane photos.
His first published piece, which he sent unsolicited to Air Force Magazine while in high school, was about the need he perceived for the bombers of Strategic Air Command to have escort fighters. He went on to write for numerous newspapers and magazines while establishing a following for not only his military history stories and books but also his newspaper columns.
He wrote commentaries for Air Force Times from June 1994 until December 2013. His first column for the paper was published on June 13, 1994, in which he describes the "perplexing challenges" likely faced by F-15 pilots who mistakenly shot down an American Black Hawk helicopter that April. His final column on Dec. 9, 2013, was a call to recapitalize the Air Force's combat search and rescue fleet.
Typically, Dorr used his platform to defend the rank and file and call out senior military and Defense Department leadership.
"I interviewed the big guys to convey to them what the little guys wanted," he said Dec. 17 on his blog. "Their own base visits were orchestrated and rarely told them what real airmen wanted and needed. My column was for the staff sergeants and the captains — not the very junior-most airmen but the ones doing the work. We have always had better than we deserve and we owe everything to them."
He also wrote a weekly column for the four Military Times newspapers, looking at history in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.
"I still hear frequently from Air Force Times readers, including some who haven't noticed that I haven't appeared in the paper since December 2013," he said.
Overall, Dorr's 60-year career of writing about the Air Force and aviation included about 80 books. His best seller, at about 100,000 copies, was "Desert Shield: The Build-Up: The Complete Story," published in 1991, he said. His worst seller, at about 400 copies, was a later book about Army history.
Dorr also wrote about 6,000 magazine articles and 2,000 newspaper columns. He has donated his archives — 140,000 8x10 photos, 100,000 color slides, 6.000 books — to 501(c)(3) charities, he said. Most went to the Glenn L. Martin Maryland Aviation Museum at Martin Baltimore State Airport in Middle River, Maryland, where the collection will be accessible to researchers.
His crime novel, "Crime Scene: Fairfax County," was published Jan. 1, "made possible in part through the artistry and publishing skills of Victor Rook," he wrote. The book is available for Kindle and in print from Amazon. Proceeds will be donated to the Commemorative Air Force, a (501)(c)(3) charity.
"I'm still a writer," he said. He's working on a second murder mystery — this one about a blonde found dead in a river. "I've written 40,000 words — I'm about halfway through — and still haven't figured out who murdered her." he said.
