Richard Loos Of Warsaw Honored As Veteran Of The Month
From left, Kosciusko County Veteran Affairs Officer Rich Maron, Kosciusko Commissioner President Bob Conley, Veteran of the Month Richard Loos and Kosciusko Commissioner Vice President Cary Groninger. InkFreeNews photo by Lasca Randels.
By Lasca Randels
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — Richard Lee Loos of Warsaw was honored as Veteran of the Month at the Kosciusko County Commissioners meeting Tuesday, March 16.
He was born Sept. 14, 1939, to Alexander and Mildred Loos in Williamsport, Ind. His family moved to Chicago when he was in elementary school.
After graduating from Lane Technical High School in Chicago in 1957, Loos enrolled at Purdue University. In 1962, he received his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering and began working at Public Service Indiana at the R. A. Gallagher generating station in New Albany.
In 1963, Loos enlisted in the U.S. Army infantry. In 1964, he attended the Artillery and Missile officer candidate school at Fort Sill, Okla., receiving a commission as Second Lieutenant in the artillery.
He received a branch transfer and attended the Engineer Officer Basic course at Fort Belvoir, Va.
After completing that course, he went to Fort Benning, Ga., to attend parachute training, earning his wings in May 1964.
Richard and Karen
He was assigned to the 538th Engineer Battalion Construction at Fort Knox, Ky., where he was a platoon leader, operations officer and company commander.
In 1966, the unit was deployed to Thailand where they were responsible for building an all-weather road from Nakhon Ratchasima (Korat) to Saraburi.
Loos was also on temporary duty (TDY) for a short time with the 87th Engineer Battalion Construction at Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam.
At the end of 1966, Loos left active duty and went back to civilian life, returning to Public Service Indiana in New Albany.
In 1969, he left Public Service and returned to Purdue University to pursue a degree in nuclear engineering, where he received a Master of Science degree in 1971.
In December 1970, Loos began working for Bechtel Power Corporation in San Francisco, Calif., as a design engineer on a twin 1000 MW nuclear plant for Philadelphia Electric.
His career with Bechtel lasted almost 40 years and took him through many assignments and many corporate positions, including engineering supervision, engineering management, project management, general manager of an engineering company and vice president over several Bechtel organizations.
Loos’ career included numerous foreign assignments and provided the opportunity to live in four foreign countries: Ukraine, Hong Kong, Egypt and Austria.
In Ukraine, he was the project director of the Shelter Improvement Project established to build a new safe confinement over the damaged Unit 4 reactor at Chernobyl.
For the last five years, he has been happily married to Karen Schneider (nee Allen), whom he met and fell in love with in 1958.
Loos has two boys from a previous marriage, Alexander and Nathan. Alexander is a court reporter working in the Boston area and is married to Megumi Loos. Nathan is currently working for Saudi Aramco in Dammam Saudi Arabia, planning maintenance for the Aramco aircraft fleet.
Loos also has a stepson, David Schneider, who lives near Warsaw with his wife, Carrie; and a stepdaughter, Jennifer Rogers, who lives with her husband, Will, near Columbia City.
Loos also has six grandchildren, all living in the area.
In his leisure, Loos enjoys traveling, reading, giving flight instruction and flying his 1948 Stinson.
“We do this every month and we find out that all around us, our neighbors are some of the most amazing men and women, so we thank God for that,” said Kosciusko County Veteran Affairs Officer Rich Maron.
“I appreciate being recognized for this award,” Loos said. “As far as I was concerned, the military probably was one of the best things that happened to me, other than my wife, Karen.”
From left, Kosciusko County Commissioner President Bob Conley shakes the hand of Veteran of the Month Richard Loos of Warsaw. InkFreeNews photo by Lasca Randels
