Robert Tyce was one of several well-known flight instructors in Hawaii at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was the own of K-T Flying Service, which taught the basics to flying students involved in the Civilian Flight Training Program. Tyce was killed on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked, strafing the runway at John Rodgers Airport. After Cornelia Fort made it back to the hangar safely and tried to explain that the Japanese were attacking, no one believed her until a mechanic came in shouting that a Japanese plane had just killed Bob Tyce. He became the first recorded civilian death on that day.
