Bob Pauli

Bob hails from the city of Hammond in Southeast Louisiana. He spent the first two years with us in 24th Squadron, and the last two in 8th Squadron. Following graduation, Bob had a 26-year Air Force career that is about as varied as you can have. Following an all-too-brief stint in UPT, Bob served a tour at a radar site in Maine, which he claims was distinguished mostly by his advances in skiing. His next assignment was in space surveillance at Cheyenne Mountain, where he distinguished himself by further advances in skiing, but also by working under a NORAD commander who was the father of his former roommate, Bill McKee. On September 6, 1969, at the USAFA

Chapel Bob got married to the love of his life, Susan Kaye Schindler, whom he had met months prior to graduation while Sue was a student at Loretto Heights College. From the NORAD assignment they were off to Navigator and Electronic Warfare Officer (EWO) training and more skiing in Northern California. Following EWO school, Bob did 3 years in the B-52H as a member of the 34th Bomb Squadron at Wright-Patterson AFB and in the 307th Strategic Wing at Utapao Air Base, Thailand. While at Utapao he completed 42 combat missions, the last being within an hour of the end of the war. Bob says that fortune smiled on him and he left the B-52 in 1975 for the RC-135 at Offutt AFB and onward to Kadena AB Japan. The assignment at Kadena was marred slightly by a major takeoff crash in an RC-135 at Clark AB, while Bob was in charge of the back-end crew. Exciting stuff when you survive. Upon his return from Japan and following completion of Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell AFB, Bob served as Air Officer Commanding (AOC) of Starship 19 (CS19) for 2 years, then assistant to the Deputy Commandant.

Bob is extremely proud of the assortment of cadets in 19th Squadron that produced Gen Dave Goldfein, CSAF, Gen TJ O'Shaughnessy, USNORTHCOM and NORAD, Lt Gen Chris Bogdan (ret) F-35 PEO, and BG Dana Lindsey Born, former Dean at USAFA. Bob said, "With cadet leadership like that in my squadron, the job was much easier than it might otherwise have been." Bob left USAFA in 1984 and spent the next seven years in the Pentagon in Air Force Intelligence. He credits a few great escapes and strong support from leadership including, among others, Maj Gen Rich O’Lear ’63 and Lt Gen Jim Clapper, that he achieved the rank of Colonel. He concluded his USAF career as Air Force Executive Agent for Foreign Materiel and as a division chief in the Defense Intelligence Agency with oversight of National Air and Space Intelligence Center technical production.
Following his Air Force career, Bob worked for several of the large government contractors -- Sierra Nevada Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and a few smaller ones. His last job was in 2012 at the new National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency site in Virginia. Late breaking, Bob has returned to full time systems engineering work for another major intelligence agency. Never say die, and it will pay for his new BMW X3.

Full credit where it is due, for the past 49-years Sue has been Bob’s strong supporter, partner, and career common sense advisor. She and Bob are blessed with five children: Rob, a GS-14 in NGA; Billy, a USAF AGR major in San Antonio; Aaron, a USAF major at Los Angeles Air Force Station; Becky Shipley, spouse of Erik, CEO of a DOD startup in Maryland; and Robin Maranian, spouse of Ara, a cardiologist in Northern Virginia. According to Bob, "Those 5 and now 12 grandchildren tell me I made an enduring mark. Please, God, just one more thing. Let me visit you when this mission is complete."

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