LT ROBERT T. BIANCHI, USN SIGNAL CHARLIE 

Bobby was a graduate of Columbia High School, Maplewood, New Jersey, Class of 1979. He was named to the All State Lacrosse team 1977, 1978 and 1979. He was an All American Lacrosse Player his junior and senior year of high school. He was named to New Jersey’s Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1997. He was named Lacrosse Player of the Century for New Jersey in 2003 by the Star Ledger.

Bobby was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy Class of 1983. All American Lacrosse Player and Captain of the Navy Lacrosse Team his first class year. He reported to flight school in January 1984. He graduated, earned his “Wings of Gold”, became a Naval Aviator on 31 May 1985 in Pensacola, Florida.

He was assigned to HC-5 in Guam January of 1986. He made flight commander on 30 January 1987. Bobby was assigned to the USNS Mercy 18 March 1987 to aid with it’s four month humantarian mission in the Philippines and South Pacific. On March 23, 1987 the HH-46 Helicopter he was piloting crashed approx. 32 miles north of Subic Bay Naval Air Station on the Bucao River.

He is buried in New Jersey.