On April 19, 2019, Capt. Robert William Schwab, known by those who loved him as Bill Schwab, strapped on an oxygen mask for the Navy pilot’s last flight. The mask was placed, with care, over his face at Arlington Hospital Center and Bill was not to return from this take-off. His funeral is scheduled at Arlington National Cemetery with military honors on October 28th, 2019 at 1:00 pm.
In 1945, Bill was 17 years old and graduating from High School in small-town Joliet, Illinois, when he headed out of the tiny home he shared with his parents and the bedroom he shared with his two brothers. His father, who worked at a gravel factory and was descended from German immigrants who had come to the mid-west to farm, sent Bill out to get a social security card so he could start his own work (Bill had picked asparagus in season and did part-time and summer work at the gravel factory).
In downtown Joliet, Bill met his high school buddy on the street who told him that the Navy was looking for young men who might make the cut to be pilots, and that, in return, the Navy promised an education. He consulted his other high school friend, Stan Shepard, and made his decision. (He would stay friends with Stan his entire life and Stan and his wife named their son after Bill). The dream of strapping in and flying the world to protect his country and the universal ideals it stood for excited him, -and sustained him throughout his long career in the Navy.
He and his buddy, Hank Hallolan, signed up at the recruiter’s office and then promptly hitch-hiked to the West Coast to mark and celebrate their decision. Bill returned to Joliet and enrolled at Joliet Community College, until the Navy called him in to put him to the test.
He passed with flying (literally) colors and qualified to be a Navy Carrier Aviator in June of 1946. Carrier pilots take-off and land on the smallest runways in the world, on the decks of aircraft carriers, aided by catapults to shoot off the deck and tail hook catch cables to stop then in landing. His designation was “VA” pilot, meaning that he was trained to go behind lines and attack enemy surface and ground targets.
After training in Corpus Christi, Texas, he was assigned to a fighter squadron flying the Atlantic out of Pensacola, Florida, with the Attack Squadron VA75 (“the Sunday Punchers”) and the Atlantic’s Sixth Fleet. He flew out of Atlanta, Jacksonville, Corpus Christi and San Diego.
In 1950, as war broke out in Korea, Bill was being described in official assessments as an “outstanding pilot, cool, logical and reliable”. By 1952 he was a Junior Lieutenant Flight Officer making bombing runs deep in the war zone of North Korea. He flew off the vessel Bon Homme Richard, a recommissioned Essex-class aircraft carrier. On the vessel’s 26,000th landing he stepped out of his plane and examined the bottom fuselage with a hole blown into it from heavy anti-aircraft flak, and said simply, “It was a hairy hop.”
On a subsequent flight he was waived off from landing on the aircraft carrier when it was observed that his landing gear had been ripped away. He diverted to a land runway that was hurriedly foamed. He emptied his gas tank and brought the A4D Skyhawk plane down on its bare belly while ambulances and fire trucks swooped in. He walked away after a perfect skid landing, -and enjoyed telling the story.
He received multiple awards and recognitions during his time over Korea. He once was applauded for his decision to break away during a return run to assist a vessel that was under fire from artillery on shore. The artillery was eliminated. He was again cited for his precision in taking out North Korean hydroelectric power stations at Kyosen (Sui-ho Dam in North Korea) while under heavy fire.
After the war in Korea scaled back, LTJG Schwab spent time flying out of Japan and on and off the deck of the USS Ticonderoga, another Essex-class aircraft carrier. He was then brought to Quonset Point, Rhode Island as a squadron duty officer, where he was applauded in official assessments as “an aggressive aviator.” The Navy next appointed him to teach other aviators in Pensacola, Florida.
It was in Pensacola, Florida, that his life would take its most profound turn; he met a Pensacola girl, Katherine Boyle Brabenec, known affectionately by her friends as Kitty. He fell in love with her and her four-year-old son from a teenage marriage, Kim. When he was promoted to Lieutenant and transferred to California, he sent for Kitty and Kim and he married Kitty in a ceremony in the hills above Monterey, -an event they would both cherish and talk about throughout their lives. Bill was promoted to Lieutenant and assigned to the USS Shangri-La, another Essex-class aircraft carrier, out of San Diego. He and his wife had a second son, Michael (“Mikel”), in 1956. And when the Shangri-La aircraft carrier took Bill to Japan, Kitty and the boys followed and lived there for a year.
By 1964, Bill was a Lieutenant Commander working for the Command Fleet Support in Norfolk. The command recognized him for his mastery of details and sent him on trips to London to liaison with the Eastern Atlantic Command.
His wife, Kitty, was working in the Norfolk area to advance civil rights and she served as the Director of the Women’s Job Corps Program (a program that took women out of poverty by training them in employable skills) for the Tidewater area (Southeastern Virginia). Her activism for civil rights influenced Bill and he, in a move considered brave and possibly career ending at that time, wrote a letter to the editor in 1964 which was published in the Virginian Pilot, in full throated support of the emerging civil rights movement.
Instead of ending his career, Bill was placed in command of an attack jet squadron out of Norfolk, VA-43. Subsequent evaluations began to mention his “attractive wife … very active in community affairs.” In 1966 he was cited for having “strong convictions,” adding that “he supports his conclusions convincingly.” In 1967 he was noted for having “strong moral courage” and was promoted to Commander.
In evaluating his command of VA-43, it was stated that he raised the “morale and Esprit de’ corp” and concluded that he was doing, “one hell of a fine job”, -unusual language for an official evaluation by officer superiors. He was then assigned to the USS Roosevelt aircraft carrier running Air Ops. This was like coordinating an airport at sea. The Roosevelt was deployed to the Mediterranean Sea, and, once again, his wife followed with the two boys. They lived in Tirrenia, Italy for a year.
In 1969 he was found to be “a truly outstanding officer; intelligent, forceful, poised, tactful, with a cooly analytical approach to all problems.” His career took another turn when he was transferred to the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. to concentrate on tactical operations in the Vietnam conflict and ‘Vietnamization’ of the war. He was promoted to the rank of Captain and spent long hours, often overnight, working on the intricacies of the war in Vietnam.
In 1972 he was selected to represent the Navy on the Inter-American Defense Board, the Joint Brazil-US Defense Commission and the Joint Mexican-US Defense Commission. In this capacity he taught at the Inter-American Defense College and traveled extensively in Central and South America. He became proficient in Spanish. He and his wife hosted diplomatic events and celebrations at their home and other venues. His evaluations described, “A top notch officer in any assignment.”
His diplomacy and technical skills were again called upon when he was assigned to NATO service as the Navy’s Strike Force South Joint Command representative based in Verona, Italy, in 1976. He and Kitty became organizers and leaders in the NATO forces in that region. Their genuine enthusiasm for the people and the area contributed to a smooth liaison with the Sixth Fleet and defense forces at the NATO Center at the Brenner Pass, “LandSouth”. Bill was known as the U.S. Naval Officer, in his white uniform, that would walk to work through the ancient city and greet and get to know people at all levels. He became prolific in Italian. Verona became their home.
In 1980 he retired and stayed in Verona. He commuted weekly to Bologna, Italy, where he became the Business Manager for Johns Hopkins University’s School of International Studies (SAIS). There he continued to learn about the country, traveled with the students, met with the Pope and other foreign dignitaries, and continued his own studies in Italian. He was an expert on Italy.
He returned to Washington, DC, in 1984 to serve as the Business Manager for Georgetown Preparatory School until 1989, continuing his interest in diplomacy and academics.
After hours, he volunteered and trained as a CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) first responder. He lectured and guided new military recruits as a representative of the United Armed Forces Association. He was active as a neighborhood organizer in North Arlington and earned the sobriquet, “Mayor of Chesterbrook Road” for his involvement with neighbors who lived on and around his street. He hosted birthday parties and other events for his neighbors. He was also active in the lives of his two sons and his grandson.
The U.S. Navy made good on its promise to offer Bill an education. He received an Associates degree in Mathematics from Joliet Community College, a Bachelor’s in Economics from Tulane University, a Masters in International Relations from George Washington University, and a Masters in Business Administration from Boston University. He spoke 2 languages and had attended the language institutes in both Washington, DC, and at Monterey, California. Bill studied Arabic and knew how to make polite greetings in a number of other languages.
His interest in learning lasted well up to the age of 90, when he suffered a fall, was hospitalized, and later had a fatal seizure while in the hospital. At that time, he was surrounded by people who admired, liked and loved him. He had come a long way from his childhood home in Joliet. He flew the world and helped defend his country and its ideals.
He is survived by his son, Kim Schwab, his other son, Mikel Schwab, his grandson, Tyler Miguet Schwab, and his daughter-in-law, Tes Venzon Schwab.
He will rest at Arlington Cemetery where he will be buried with his wife, Kitty, who passed in 2011. They are once again together forever.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18