ILLESHEIM, Germany — With nicknames like Bobby Mac and Mac Daddy, one might think that Chief Warrant Officer 5 Robert McNeal was an up-and-coming hip-hop artist.

But McNeal, who retires Jan. 31, after 35 years of Army service, is an honest-to-God aviation legend, according to Col. George Bilafer, commander of the 11th Aviation Regiment.

“His entire career, he has been leading by example,” Bilafer said, in remarks at McNeal’s Nov. 5 retirement ceremony. The ceremony was held at the Illesheim theater to accommodate everyone who attended — many flew in from the States, to bid farewell to McNeal. “He is the epitome of the warrant officer corps. Bobby is an absolute legend in Army aviation.”

McNeal began his career as a crew chief door gunner in 1966 in the Vietnam War. He went through flight school in 1969, joining a handful of black pilots, and returned to Vietnam in 1970 for a 19-month tour as an AH-1 Cobra pilot.

While racism was widespread in the civilian world in the early 1970s, McNeal said he didn’t encounter much in the Army — at least not as a pilot.

“When I was a crew chief, there was one guy in my unit who used the ‘N-word’ a lot around me,” McNeal said. “He said he didn’t want me in his platoon. In nine months, I had gone from E-3 to E-5, and this guy was still a specialist 4 after 13 years of service.”

Once McNeal went through flight school and achieved his boyhood dream of flying, his career soared.

He flew 1,756 combat hours during his second stint in Vietnam.

“I was not afraid,” McNeal said. “I thought I couldn’t die.” Then, in Operation Junction City, in an area we thought was secure, I saw a guy on the ground with a weapon pointed at me. He fired, and I fired too late. I froze. The round stopped before it hit me, but it made me realize that I was vulnerable.”

In the mid-1970s McNeal flew the first AH-64 Apache concept helicopter. He was one of 21 pilots selected to field the Apache helicopters, Bilafer said.

McNeal spent much of his career as a trainer of pilots, and, unofficially, a mentor.

“Bobby taught lieutenants and captains what it took to be calm under fire,” Bilafer said.

Even during Operation Iraq Freedom I, McNeal was mentoring young pilots.

“The Iraqis were fighting a lot like the Vietnamese did,” McNeal said. “We saw a lot of things that I experienced in Vietnam. I was able to help some of the younger guys in that way.”

One of the soldiers he mentored was Chief Warrant Officer 5 Leonard Eichhorn of Headquarters Company, 4th Brigade, 1st Infantry Division.

“He was one of the first guys I met in the Apache program back in 1986,” Eichhorn said in an e-mail from Forward Operating Base Speicher, Iraq. “Even then, he was one of the old guys, multiple tours in Vietnam. I always told him I was going to try and catch up to him. Making (chief warrant officer 5) only meant I’d caught up in rank, I’ll never catch him in experience.”

McNeal pinned on Eichhorn’s chief warrant officer 5 rank on June 1.

For the past four years, McNeal has been stationed at Illesheim, serving as the regiment’s tactical operations officer, standards officer and most recently the airfield operations manager.

The day before McNeal’s retirement ceremony, he took his final flight, which also was his first in an AH-64D Apache Longbow. Afterward, soldiers from the regiment doused the runway with fire hoses and McNeal with champagne.

Having spent nearly two-thirds of his life in an Army uniform, McNeal has mixed feelings about letting go.

“When you get older, your reflexes aren’t as refined,” McNeal said. “I knew this time had to come, but I’m going to miss flying.”

But, he said, he’ll cherish the friends he has made across the globe.

“It’s been a great career,” McNeal said. “I've reached my dream and made friends all over the world. I feel truly blessed.”

Although he is retiring, his legacy in Army aviation will live on in the soldiers and pilots he has mentored.

“Army aviation is in good hands because (McNeal) has taught us what right looks like,” Bilafer said.

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