1/18/1968

Robert (Bob) Condon was born July 2, 1934, in rural Nebraska to dairy farmers. He was on the rodeo circuit in college, and from early on he had a lust for life that was bigger than the dairy farm. Although an Army ROTC cadet, he decided the Navy was for him and was subsequently commissioned an ensign in the Navy in July 1957.

After Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island, Condon attended Underwater Swimmers School at Naval Station Key West, Florida, followed by school at Naval Powder Factory Indian Head, Maryland for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) training. Next stop, he served as an EOD officer with EOD Unit One Pearl Harbor, Hawaii from May 1958 to March 1960. During this time he had many adventures including hard hat diving in Hawaii and Alaska before scuba diving.

After EOD Unit One, Condon attended combat information center (CIC) watch officer training in San Diego, followed by service as CIC officer, diving officer, and operations officer aboard USS Cabildo (LSD 16). Condon completed another sea tour as CIC officer aboard USS Oklahoma City (CLG 5), during which the “OKIE CITY” was involved in the Tonkin Gulf Incident.

Completing his back-to-back sea duty, Condon reemerged back in the UDT world and completed EOD and nuclear weapons disposal training and basic airborne training while serving with Commander, Naval Operations Support Group, Pacific, at Naval Amphibious Base (NAB), Coronado. After UDT replacement accession training, Condon was assigned to Underwater Demolition Team TWELVE (UDT-12) at NAB Coronado as executive officer fleeting up to commanding officer.

While with UDT, he completed three deployments to Southeast Asia, was involved with testing of the AQUA Dart, and his men assisted USS Bennington (CVS 20) in the recovery of Apollo 4 located near Honolulu, Hawaii. Condon loved the water and diving. He was a loving husband and father of two daughters and was a good and humorous friend to his shipmates and teammates.

Condon was killed in action in South Vietnam on Jan. 18, 1968.