Lt Col Robert M. Hoover USAF, Retired July 19, 2018 | Died in Meridian, ID

Robert Milton “Bob” Hoover was born His combat experience included 100 mis- March 31, 1926 in Greenburg, PA to Charles sions in Korea and 43 missions in Vietnam, for Evans Hoover and Sarah Valoy Speckler a total of 236 combat hours. Picking. He had two brothers, John Wilson His awards and decorations include the Hoover and Charles Evans Hoover, who Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, were both airmen in the Army Air Corps. Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with five John was lost in combat in New Guinea. oak leaf clusters, Joint Service Commendation Bob attended high school in Granville, OH Medal, A.F. Distinguished Unit Medal, A.F. until 1944. Outstanding Unit Medal, Combat Readiness On March 13, 1944, Bob enlisted in the Medal, and Army Good Conduct Medal. U.S. Army Air Corps. He was a private first His service Awards include the American class from August 8, 1944 to December Theatre (World War II), World War II Victory, 21, 1945. He attended the United States National Defense Service with star, Korean Military Academy at West Point, NY from Service Medal with two stars, Vietnam Service July 10, 1946 to June 2, 1950. He was one Medal with star, Longevity Service with three of 18 cadets that embarked on a month- oak leaf clusters, Small Arms Expert Medal, long tour of the military presence in Germany and Greece. He Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation, United Nations was commissioned as second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force Medal, and the Republic of Vietnam Medal. upon graduation. He attended pilot training with the 3555th While he was a cadet, Bob met Margaret Elizabeth Rose, whose Training Group, Perrin AFB, TX; the 3525th Training Group; family was from Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY. They were married the 3605th Nav Training Group, Williams AFB, AZ; and the December 29, 1953 in Albuquerque, NM and had four children: 127th Pilot Training Wing, Luke AFB, AZ. He was an F-84G Robert Craig Hoover, Jeffery Matthew Hoover, Wendy Janine fighter/bomber pilot with the 58th Fighter Bomber Group, 311th Hoover, and Scott David Hoover. Fighter Bomber Squadron in Korea from September 19, 1952 to He and the family lived in a home in Boise, ID for about the next June 19, 1953, then fighter pilot, Air Defense Command (ADC) 40 years. He got certified as a Financial Planner and worked with 47th FIS, Niagara Falls, NY and the 4926th Test Squadron, Waddell & Reed, Quantum Planning Group, Premier Financial Kirtland AFB, NM in an F-86F from July 1953 to January 1954. Group, and Talent Investments. He also worked to assist and estab- Until May 1954, he was assigned to the Test Aircraft Unit, Task lish several faith-based organizations locally and nationally. Group 7.4, Marshall Islands, where, flying a F-84G, he experi- Bob and Peggy welcomed people from the community into enced an engine-out emergency at 36 thousand feet, necessitating their home; and, as a result of their daughter being hosted over- a “dead stick” landing on an isolated landing strip on the island seas by a family for a year, two girls she got to know were each of Eniwetok. He then returned to the 4926th in New Mexico made part of the family for a year at a time, enriching the lives of and on to ADC as a fighter pilot in F-86F/D from June 1954 to all touched. Academy and pilot training classmate Jack McGee August 1956 in Niagara Falls NY. also settled in Idaho after retirement. They had attended each He attended graduate school at North Carolina State College other's weddings and kept in touch over the years eventually each from September 1956 to June 1958, obtaining a Master of becoming a resident of the same retirement community attending Science degree in nuclear engineering and mathematics. He was each other’s wives’ funerals and seeing each other every day after then appointed as an assistant professor/instructor in the Math their wives passed away. Department at the U.S. Air Force Academy, where he taught from While they were growing up, Bob told his children that he June 1958 to August 1962. He was then a mathematician with loved their mother so much he married her twice. They had al- the Defense Intelligence Agency from August 1962 to September ways known that a ceremony took place at the West Point Chapel 1966, assigned to Arlington Hall, VA. on June 13, 1954 and not until later that the official marriage From September 1966 to September 1969, he was assigned as took place in New Mexico in January. They thought it fitting an aircraft commander; chief, Operations and Training; squad- that on their ceremonial wedding day, June 13, 2019, they would ron operations officer; wing chief, Operations Control, RF-4C, be rejoined and placed for eternity in the West Point Cemetery. Alconbury, England. Then, from October 1969 to September 1970, This article was written by his family for the 2020 issue of TAPS he was aircraft commander, RF-4C, Udorn, Thailand; chief, Out and has been briefly edited for this Ring Melt biography. of Country Recon, HQ, 7th Air Force, Tan Son Nhut, Vietnam. From September 1970 to August 1975, he was squadron com- mander, Field Maintenance Squadron; wing chief of maintenance; wing assistant deputy commander for Logistics and Resources, Mountain Home AFB, ID until retirement at the rank of lieuten- ant colonel on August 31, 1975, for a total of 31 years’ service.