Schoeffel, Pete
Biography
Pete Schoeffel came from a naval aviation family and knew he wanted to be an aviator since he was six years old. He was raised in southern California and Washington D.C., and graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1954. Schoeffel then trained as an attack aviator and joined VA-66, an attack squadron that would eventually be assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid (CVS-11) for a Mediterranean cruise. After returning to the United States to study Operations Research, Schoeffel worked for the Center for Naval Analysis in Washington, D.C. He then found himself on board Intrepid once again, this time with VA-15, and made two cruises to Vietnam in 1966 and 1967. During the second cruise he was shot down near Haiphong and spent five and a quarter years as a prisoner of war. Upon returning home, Schoeffel married and continued his naval career, serving in different capacities until retiring from the Navy in 1982.