Schneider, Skip, AVCM

PLEASE DESCRIBE WHO OR WHAT INFLUENCED YOUR DECISION TO JOIN THE NAVY.
As a restaurant manager, I was giving assistant manager jobs to my friends and their brothers. It was the time that I needed to join the military. My father and his father were also in the military. I'd asked my parents when I was still in junior high school if there was any reason on earth that either would disown me, they BOTH said that if I burned my Draft Card. My dad was ADM Radford's aide in WWII.

WHETHER YOU WERE IN THE SERVICE FOR SEVERAL YEARS OR AS A CAREER, PLEASE DESCRIBE THE DIRECTION OR PATH YOU TOOK. WHERE DID YOU GO TO BOOT CAMP AND WHAT UNITS, BASES, SHIPS OR SQUADRONS WERE YOU ASSIGNED TO? WHAT WAS YOUR REASON FOR LEAVING?
I was an 8264/6692, which was an in-flight technician (aircrewman) on the E-2C Hawkeye. Doing O-level and I-level maintenance while airborne, as well as aircrew duties, kept me in the Maintainer World, per se; so it was only natural for me to want to continue in Maintenence, eventuating into a Maintenance Control position and finally into the 8300 NEC as a Chief. Being an E-2C Flight Tech and then the MMCPO NEC kept me in a CNO PRI billet, so I never got to pick a duty assignment, save for my first out of school, which was VAW-114. Anyway, I got to pick my last assignment, went to PAXR in a billet created for me by the VADM (earning my last NEC), and hoped my children would love to learn about the history of our nation. My wife and I loved it more than they did and upon retirement, I got an extremely wonderful job and we are still here.

IF YOU PARTICIPATED IN ANY MILITARY OPERATIONS, INCLUDING COMBAT, HUMANITARIAN AND PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS, PLEASE DESCRIBE THOSE WHICH MADE A LASTING IMPACT ON YOU AND, IF LIFE-CHANGING, IN WHAT WAY?
Half a dozen, from Earnest Will to OEF. None were PUC worthy, except for the fact that I learned that Navy (and US) traitor Walker and clan gave away top secret data that I was flying with and Russia had access to it all. As I got up September 11th and turned on the TV for light in our bedroom, I saw a plane crash into the North Tower of the Twin Towers and awakened my wife to watch an anticipated replay. Ten to fifteen minutes later, another plane crashed into the South Tower. It was then that I told my wife we were under attack and took off to VAW-112's Maintenance Control, as the MMCPO. I had the ASDO call the Skipper and the MO immediately, and then told him to call all the Day Check maintainers in NOW.

We launched all four of our E-2C's in an FMC status to patrol up and down the West Coast and we basically turned ourselves over to NORAD on that fateful day! My squadron managed to sustain flight ops for 24/7 for the entire West Coast and the western U.S. until told to stand down. Because of 9-11, my squadron (with less than two-thirds manning) had to deploy five months earlier than originally scheduled; however, on an extremely high note during this OEF Op, we flew over 2400 hours and achieved a 100% mission completion rate.

OF ALL YOUR DUTY STATIONS OR ASSIGNMENTS, WHICH ONE DO YOU HAVE FONDEST MEMORIES OF AND WHY? WHICH WAS YOUR LEAST FAVORITE?
NARF NORIS because of the people I had the pleasure of meeting and working with: approximately thirty USN and about forty-something out of 4800 civvies. I am still shipmate, friend, and colleague to many of the USN and several of the civilians I worked alongside at the NARF (and then through its name change to the NADEP, and now the FRC-SW).

FROM YOUR ENTIRE MILITARY SERVICE, DESCRIBE ANY MEMORIES YOU STILL REFLECT BACK ON TO THIS DAY.
On my first-ever deployment, I saw an intermittent blip on a particular RADAR video and when we ran an S-2 over it, we found boat people when we were Blue Water Ops. Kitty set up about thirty cots in the Hangar Bay. September 17, 1986, I put on my Combo cover and had my wife and sponsor pin on my anchors.

WHAT PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF FROM YOUR MILITARY CAREER?
No. Closest I came was when a previous shipmate joined our squadron, came up to the flight deck and an F-14 blew him into our port turning prop. I ran forward, snatched him out of the air, and pulled him to safety. The BG Commander was watching from the bridge, had me escorted up to the Bridge after Flight Ops, and he awarded me a NAM on the spot stating it was one of the bravest things he'd ever seen. When my Skipper pinned my NAM on my white QA jersey later on that evening at Quarters, he saw the two holes from my previous pinning and it was then that I related the story to him.

OF ALL THE MEDALS, AWARDS, FORMAL PRESENTATIONS AND QUALIFICATION BADGES YOU RECEIVED, OR OTHER MEMORABILIA, WHICH ONE IS THE MOST MEANINGFUL TO YOU AND WHY?
I received my first NAM when the BG CDR saw me grab a shipmate in midair who was blown from an F-14 at military power (trying to get out of a turnbuckle on the Flight Deck) into the turning prop of an E-2. He called me up to the O-9 level, gave me the NAM, then said he'd have my Skipper present it to me at Quarters later that evening, which CDR Reagard did.

WHICH INDIVIDUAL(S) FROM YOUR TIME IN THE MILITARY STAND OUT AS HAVING THE MOST POSITIVE IMPACT ON YOU AND WHY?
ENCM Nemensio "Frank" Francisco. He is a dedicated and fantastic Master Chief, extremely fair-minded, a trustworthy and loyal shipmate and hardcore Navy! It is for those reasons that I am proud to call him my friend.

CAN YOU RECOUNT A PARTICULAR INCIDENT FROM YOUR SERVICE, WHICH MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN FUNNY AT THE TIME, BUT STILL MAKES YOU LAUGH?
When I was a CPO, my "boss" was a Chief with more years in as a Chief than I had in my Navy career. When they announced only my name from my squadron over the 1MC as having made Senior Chief, he came into the work center visibly shaken and virtually in tears. I kicked everyone out stating that he had hit his head on one of the overhead pipes again. I asked him to wear a bandage on his forehead to prevent further embarrassment.

The kicker here is that this Chief went through the Chief's Initiation years earlier and learned that his twin brother in another command had made it, too, but when he didn't get paid after a few months, he went to PSD to find out when--only to discover that his command screwed up with his SSN, ONLY his brother had made it--since his first name and middle initial were the same as his brother's and their SSNs were almost the exact same. So he had to put on his white cap again, then missed the next Chief advancement and after the second time, he finally made Chief...and went through the Initiation yet again!

WHAT PROFESSION DID YOU FOLLOW AFTER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING NOW? IF YOU ARE CURRENTLY SERVING, WHAT IS YOUR PRESENT OCCUPATIONAL SPECIALTY?
I followed a path that an MMCPO would follow and allow me to become an overarching Program Manager.

WHAT MILITARY ASSOCIATIONS ARE YOU A MEMBER OF, IF ANY? WHAT SPECIFIC BENEFITS DO YOU DERIVE FROM YOUR MEMBERSHIPS?
PAXR CPOA, NCOA, FRA, VFW, American Legion, DAV, and AFCEA. I still enjoy being p/o the CPO community via the Patuxent River CPOA, which also allows me to participate as a docent for the Patuxent River Aerospace Museum. The others help me in the retirement world and I'm on the Board of Directors as V.P.of Membership for the Southern Maryland Chapter of AFCEA. Because of all I did in the military, I was able to become a volunteer at the Calvert Marine Museum, too.

IN WHAT WAYS HAS SERVING IN THE MILITARY INFLUENCED THE WAY YOU HAVE APPROACHED YOUR LIFE AND YOUR CAREER? WHAT DO YOU MISS MOST ABOUT YOUR TIME IN THE SERVICE?
My work ethic/ethos taught to me by my mother and father and their love of country is what enabled me through the military, not the other way around! I think the structure in my life in the military assisted in my job searches because everyone knew I was previous military and therefore dependable.

BASED ON YOUR OWN EXPERIENCES, WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO THOSE WHO HAVE RECENTLY JOINED THE NAVY?
For the Chiefs: Always, always, ALWAYS keep it in the Chiefs' Mess, leave the officers out of it and if you haven't learned already, grow a spine since we ARE the Backbone of the Navy! Brotherhood of the Cloth fraternity f-o-r-e-v-e-r!

IN WHAT WAYS HAS TOGETHERWESERVED.COM HELPED YOU REMEMBER YOUR MILITARY SERVICE AND THE FRIENDS YOU SERVED WITH.

TWS and the US Navy

Met old shipmates, made new ones, and I love helping others connect, set up their pages, and just answering their questions.

DS 5/3/17