Robert Neal “Bob” Schannep was born in 1937 in Virginia, the second of four sons, while his father was stationed at Langley Field Base. During the next eight years, the family moved to Maxwell Field, Montgomery, AL; Wright Field, Dayton, OH; Fort Douglas, Salt Lake City, UT; Sacramento, CA; and Fort Wright, Spokane, WA. Then, in 1945, Bob’s father was deployed overseas during World War II and the remainder of the family moved to El Segundo, CA.
Bob’s father, Colonel Dwight Schannep West Point Class of 1929, was lost in the Pacific flying a B-17 while serving on General MacArthur’s staff in occupied Japan in 1946. The four sons grew up with a hero’s worship for their father. Bob and his older brother Jack followed in their father’s footsteps and graduated from West Point, with Jack graduating in 1956. Bob became a second “Colonel Schannep” as well as an Air Force pilot. Bob’s younger brother Greg became a third “Colonel Schannep” retiring as the Chief Chaplain at Ford Hood, TX.
Bob’s mother, Louise, raised the four brothers by herself in El Segundo, where Bob completed grade school and high school. As a kid, he was a Cub Scout and a Boy Scout and swam on the high school swim team. He was a well-rounded person and was well liked by all who knew him.
Bob quickly adjusted to life at West Point even though his company was noted throughout the Corps for running an extremely tough plebe year. He brought his love of water sports with him and spent a large portion of his four years at the swimming complex with the Swim Team and the Water Polo Club. Otherwise, he stayed busy with numerous activities, including the Public Relations Council, Debate Council and Forum, Russian Club, Bridge Club, Weight Lifting Club, Camera Club, Dialectic Society and Bugle Notes, Howitzer and Pointer staffs. He was the Third Battalion Supply Officer during his First Class year. With all those activities there should have been little time for mischief but somehow he managed to squeeze it in. There are some who remember him harboring a parakeet that flew into light fixtures and used the desktop blotters for target practice, which attracted considerable attention from the Tactical Department. But above all, Bob will always be remembered by his classmates for his cheerfulness, friendliness, good humor and his willingness to help others.
Following graduation, Bob went through Primary Pilot Training and Basic Pilot Training. He married Sandra Grady in July 1961 and received his wings in September 1961. He then went through survival training followed by helicopter training. His daughter Becki was born in 1962, and he was deployed to Vietnam in 1963 to teach the Vietnamese to fly helicopters. In 1964, he came back to Stead Air Force Base in Nevada to serve as a helicopter instructor pilot. His second daughter Stacia was born in 1965 and the family moved with the helicopter school to Sheppard Air Force Base, TX, in 1966. His son Robert Grady (Shan) was born in 1970.
Bob left for his second remote tour to Taiwan in 1971. Like many serving repetitive remote tours, Bob’s time away had an impact on his family life. His daughter Stacia, who was only five, remembers saying goodbye to him at the airport. She said it was traumatic and she still thinks about it every time she is at an airport. This tour resulted in divorce from Sandra.
Bob attended the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, VA, in 1972-73 and was assigned to Warner Robbins Air Force Base in Macon, GA, later in 1973. After that he started flying fixed-wing aircraft and was assigned back to his home town of El Segundo in 1975. He then managed to remain in El Segundo in various assignments culminating a distinguished 24-year career and retiring as a colonel in 1984. During this time, he married and divorced his second wife. Bob married his third wife, Roberta, in 1984 with that marriage lasting the rest of his life.
After retirement from the Air Force, Bob worked as an aerospace consultant for approximately six years. Then he and Roberta started a silk screening business. For 22 years, he and Roberta enjoyed going to Mazatlan for a week every summer, relaxing, taking long walks on the beach and picking up shells. Bob had a real passion for golf, playing regularly in the Aerospace Golf League. He was a very good golfer, as evidenced by his three holes-in-one. During a telephone conversation with a classmate approximately three months before he passed away, he stated the he only wished that he could play 18 holes one more time.
Bob died on Nov 18, 2008, after a courageous battle with lung cancer. He is survived by his wife; Roberta, his daughters; Becki and Stacia; his son, Shan; his three brothers, Jack, Rick and Greg; and eleven grandchildren, including two step-grandchildren.
Bob remained close to his children and grandchildren. His children have fond memories of their father, commenting that he often took them fishing, made great tacos, and could grow anything in his garden. Roberta and Bob’s first wife Sandra are good friends and the entire family has remained very close.
Bob was the kind of person who made many friends and did not make enemies. One of his Air Force buddies, who had had repeated assignments with him from helicopter training in the early 1960s to the Vietnam assignment, then back with him in the States as instructor pilots and then as aerospace industry executives, commented that Bob remained a very close friend and wonderful human being. Another long term military friend commented that he was a class act, a true friend and one that could be counted on to help anyone in need. He will definitely be missed by all who knew him.
—Family & friends