After winning his wings, Bob's career included a wide variety of operational flying and staff assignments, including two tours of duty in Southeast Asia.  During his 24-year career, Bob earned an MA in Government from Webster University and completed professional courses at the Air Force Command and Staff School, the Air War College and the National Defense University. 

In 1989 Bob retired at F. E. Warren AFB, near Cheyenne, Wyoming, in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.  Subsequently hired by Continental Airlines, he logged six years of commercial flight time  before a medical condition ended his professional flying career in 1995.  In all, Bob logged a total of 8000 accident-free flying hours during his thirty year military and civilian career.  Since 1995, he and his wife Mary have enjoyed life on a small acreage in semi-rural Colorado they laughingly refer to as “the ranch.”  They share five children and five grand children from previous marriages.

The major influences in his life were his father, who exemplified the virtues of truth, honesty and satisfaction in a job well done, his three teachers in the rural Nebraska school he attended through the sixth grade, who equipped him with the social and academic tools needed to succeed in life, and his grandfather, who encouraged his ambition to be the first in his family to obtain a college education.