Bob Channon was born in Syracuse, New York, on July 21, 1925. He moved with his Mother and Father to Portsmouth, Virginia, in 1928. Later, they moved into Norfolk County outside Portsmouth where he attended Churchland Elementary and High Schools.

He entered the U. S. Military Academy in 1943 and graduated in 1946. After graduating, he completed the Infantry Officer Basic Course and the Parachute School at Fort Benning, Georgia, graduating in 1947. His first unit assignment was with the 188th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 11th Airborne Division on occupation duty in northern Japan. After taking first place in the division in academic exams and second place in physical exams for the Expert Infantry Badge Award, he was selected to be the Division Liaison Officer to the Yokohama-Tokyo Area.

While on duty as Division Liaison Officer in the Yokohama-Tokyo Area, the 11th Airborne Division was alerted for shipment back to the United States. Based on his experience in handling matters in the Yokohama-Tokyo Area, the Division Commander appointed Lieutenant Channon to plan and coordinate the movement of the division back to the states.

By the time the Korean War started in June 1950, Lieutenant Channon was back with the 11th Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Not having had combat time during World War II, he volunteered for the Airborne Rangers when the call for volunteers came in September 1950. Before deploying to Korea, he completed Ranger training with the 3rd Airborne Ranger Company at Fort Benning, Georgia, and during the winter in the high mountains above Camp Carson, Colorado.

In Korea, Captain Channon was wounded three times at the Battle of Bloody Nose Ridge with 3rd Airborne Ranger Company. Later, he was selected to make a Ranger Reconnaissance on the West Coast of North Korea where he made various landings and worked with guerrillas. When cease-fire planning started with the Chinese and North Koreans in June-July 1951, it was decided to merge the six Airborne Ranger Companies then in Korea into the 187th Airborne Regimental Combat Team (RCT) to build the 187th back up to strength for an important Top Secret mission.

The initial negotiations with the enemy were at Kaesong, North Korea, which was twelve miles behind enemy lines. The 187th was moved onto Kyushu, Japan’s major southern island. Located there were two major airfields that could support an RCT size airborne operation to recover our negotiators at Kaesong, if they were captured. Captain Channon was appointed Plans officer of the RCT to coordinate the movement to Japan and planning and rehearsal operations for subsequent operations in Korea. Later, he would coordinate movement of the RCT back to Korea when the Chinese prisoners on Koje-Do Island had captured the Island Commander.

After the Koje-Do Operation, the 187th returned to the front line for duty in the Iron Triangle. Captain Channon was assigned as S-3 of the 1st Battalion. Somewhat later, three of our tanks were stuck in the mud far out in front of our outpost line while saving a patrol that had become lost out in enemy territory. The next day Captain Channon led elements that had been assembled to handle the recovery operation. While conducting evacuation of the last tank from the scene, he was wounded again by shrapnel from an enemy flat-trajectory weapon.

After the Korean War, Captain Channon attended the Infantry Officers Advanced Course at Fort Benning where he met Carolyn Denson. After graduation in 1954, he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He and Carolyn were married shortly after. Later at Fort Bragg, he was assigned to the XVIII Airborne Corps as Assistant Plans Officer. Exercise Pine Cone I was among the airborne/air-landed exercises and operations that he planned and coordinated. This exercise involved major elements of the 82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne Division, and XVIII Airborne Corps troops. In that period he also planned for possible movement of XVIII Airborne Corps elements to Egypt to participate in the operation then in progress by the British, French, and Israelis to regain control of the Suez Canal. U. S. forces were not committed at that time.

He commenced the primary course at the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1957 and graduated in 1958. Thereafter, he was assigned to U. S. Army Hawaii/25th Infantry Division where he became Assistant Plans Officer and planned operations to support friendly nations on the eastern periphery of Asia. While on a South East Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) exercise in Thailand, he was promoted to major. While in South East Asia, he conducted the planning visit to Viet Nam.  (This visit helped Bob prepare for his assignment to South Viet Nam during 1971-73.) In this period, he planned and coordinated an operation involving the airlift of a battalion from Fort Lewis, Washington, to Clark Air Force Base (AFB) in the Philippines and the concurrent air drop of a battalion at Clark AFB that had flown in from Okinawa.

While assigned to the Pentagon in the 1961-64 period, Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Channon was the primary Action Officer planning major airlift of forces, if needed, to support three Major Generals and their staffs who were deployed to three cities in Alabama. These control teams were involved in thwarting a plan by Governor Wallace of Alabama to block entry of a black student into the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. The incident was resolved by activating the Alabama National Guard and the black student commenced studies. To help assure proper coordination for such operations in the future, Channon worked with a computer analyst, Mr. Si Berlin, from a firm on the Washington beltway to develop a computer program to accomplish coordination of planning for major airlift operations.

During 1966-67, while LTC Channon was assigned as the senior Operational Advisor in Saudi Arabia, the war in Yemen between the Royalists and the rebels was in progress. King Faisal went to London to ask Queen Elizabeth to forestall withdrawal of British troops in Aden who were supporting the Royalists. Egypt had about 50,000 troops committed in Yemen in support of the rebels and wanted to get the operation completed. Trying to get King Faisal home, President Nassar in Egypt ordered withdrawal of U. N. elements separating Egyptian and Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula. Immediately, Israel initiated the so-called Six-Day War.

LTC Channon was the senior officer in Riyadh who had daily communication with the Saudi seniors in this period. He was able to counter the Soviet-injected propaganda from Cairo claiming that United States officers were leading the destructive Israeli bombing sorties over Egypt. Advisory duties with the Saudi leaders helped prepare him for advisory relationships with Vietnamese leaders later.

During the period 1967-1970, Channon was assigned to the Atlantic Command in Norfolk, Virginia, and was promoted to full Colonel. He became Director of Unconventional Warfare because of his time working with guerrilla elements on the West Coast of North Korea during the Korean War. In this period, he obtained a degree, Master of Science in Management Engineering, which provided additional background in computer operations. Knowledge gained while obtaining the degree helped prepare him for guiding his staff in Viet Nam during development of computerized tools for management-by-exception activities.

Colonel Channon’s time in South Viet Nam was primarily as Director of Territorial Security in CORDS (Civil Operations and Rural Development Support). The assignment commenced in January 1971 and ended with the withdrawal on the last group of advisors in March 1973.  During that period Colonel Channon made over 700 visits into the provinces, districts, and villages of the country.  His final assignment in Viet Nam was as Deputy Director of the overall CORDS operation. Concurrently with his assignment in Viet Nam, Colonel Channon took the Army War College course by correspondence and graduated in early 1973.

His final assignment before retirement from the Army in 1976 was as a Battle Staff Commander of the CINCLANT Airborne Command Post. (CINCLANT is the acronym for Commander in Chief, Atlantic Command.) Duties in that assignment were sensitive and probably should still not be described.

For his time with the Rangers, Colonel Channon was inducted into the Ranger Hall of Fame in 1996.