Back in the day he was the big tech honcho from ANZO, complete with an air of confidence  and swagger, clad in his favourite black leather jacket and overseeing an expanding and thriving AOSH ANZO. Schob's desk and office was the cross roads to everything that was going on in ANZO in the mid 80's. His door was never closed to anyone. Captains, execs, general staff, new recruits and public found their way to his RTC office, for a reference, advice or just some re assurance that things were going to work out. Schobs took it all in his stride staying late every night and long after the last in the line of endless callers left.

He was the ultimate fun loving Aussie, things were never too serious, where a joke was always the first and the last order of the day, a trait he carried right to the end. This tanned strapping surfie from Melbourne had a big heart and always walked on the sunny side of the street.

Schob's had earned his stripes, he was the star auditor in a robust Sydney auditing team in the mid 70's when that org was really delivering. They had well over 100 staff in those days and were well on their way to St Hill size. There wasn't a case he couldn't crack and he had excelled through his flag internships. His worksheets were really something to behold with his stylish writing and personal flair coming through. Auditing was art to Schob's and his canvas was the worksheets.

In 1986, RTC was buckling under the take over from Deranged dave and the continental offices were taken out. Dave said it was not RTC's job to have cont offices and he was taking control. Only to re-established the cont offices 10 years later when he had subverted the entire command chart so there was only himself and his black clad groupies in position to control everything and have all the money flowing to him.

Schob's disappeared for a while and then returned to be the Senior Case Supervisor ANZO post in  mid 1987. He got to work putting C/Ses on post and seeing that they were getting people auditing and correcting them where needed. Again like when he was  in RTC, his office was a cross roads for anyone in difficulty, needing advise or just wanted a bit of Schobs to brighten their day, everybody knew the way to Schob's office. After getting the cont scene expanding with C/Ses established and delivery expanding he was in line for a promotion.  He left  Australia again, this time he would not be back  for a 17 long years and would take a journey that would leave him nothing in the end.

Schob's became the Quality Exec Int, wore commander bars and quickly got to work, getting a hang of the post and studying everything he could find on the newly computerised data files. He had to get out his 339R program, each Exec Int had to get out the program for their function and Schob's was one of only a couple of Exec Ints that got it done. His program based on his research and his own considerable experience with tech hit the conts and went in with improvements in the stats of auditor's made and quality showing up. Somehow getting this done and showing promise on the post got him removed and transferred to become the Snr Case Supervisor Gold. Made no sense to him or anyone else.

I didn't mention it earlier but Schobs had a situation with his kidneys and they were not working correctly which was a constant concern and source of pain for him. Through the years the situation was getting progressively worse with increasing pain and trouble for him. Another source of severe pain was the long separation he had endured from his wife Kathy. She was the Captain AOSH ANZO when he left Australia. After  a year or two more she found her way to the US and became staff at CC Int. In those days people from Int could travel to PAC on the weekends and see their spouse for a night. The Schobels didn't see one another much not with Paul getting busted from CSing and under medical care with those accursed kidneys.

Kathy would become the Snr C/S CC Int and hold that post for a number of years before doing her time in the PAC RPF while Paul landed in the Advanced course materials printing section of Gold. By this time they had seen very little of each other for 10 years.

Now Schobs was scooped up in the entry days of what was to become the fool's Gold en Age of Tech. He found himself at Flag on project a long side a younger guy by the name of Dan Zimmatore together they were the original sups on that project. They got some supervision in and results were there and just about the time they had reached success Dan was sent home for "out ethics" thoughts about some of the admiring pretty girls that he and Schobs had attracted.

Schobs carried on and his activities carried over to auditing. Dave's definition of an FN and shoot them all approach was whipping everyone out with the tech staff going down in windrows and the RPF filling up. The tech delivery and any progress for pc's was all but halted with no FN's called at exams for 2 whole weeks! The examiners were terrified to call anything else they would be shot. On a certain pc dave was particularly  executive C/Sing no one could get the FN to exams and with the pressure mounting in stepped Schobs. True to his character he rose to the challenge, found the by-passed charge and delivered the pc to exams with the FN. Almost everyone was amazed by his flawless communication cycle and handling of the meter, except of course for Dave who found something wrong and even despite the remarkable job Schobs had done.  

Its a particular trait of dave and his ilk, one which he has gotten away with so many times where a truly talented person will put together a sterling job and dave will find a way to inject some confusion into it and carry off with the goods like he did the real work of it. He has spent his entire life perfecting his one ability to steal other people's honest work.

Schobs was returned to Int never to be near a meter again and spend his remaining days there working on building constructions. He carried on for a year or three. Now spending more and more time in the medical officer's hands and eventually he was on a dialysis  machine draining his blood and running it through the machine every evening just to keep going. Schob's needed a kidney transplant and was on a long list to get one. The expenses were mounting and the sun was about to set on one Paul Schobel. He returned home a broken man, far away back in Australia where his expenses would be covered by welfare and no longer a concern for Int.

People in ANZO who once knew him well hardly recognised him. The former Tech zealot,  a Mr Tech with the "we can crack any case" Mojo was a shadow of his once proud self. The degradation was complete, a travesty to behold and they  wondered was he insane or just nuts. For a while he worked on ARCX public and call in, he even got a session but Schobs would soon become public enemy number one in ANZO.

A young Asian girl felt pity for him, was kind and tried to help him out with assists. Schobs still had a certain charm and despite all had not abandoned his sense of humour. She fell in love with him and when her impure  thoughts were found out she was buried on the RPF and is still there to this day.

Schobs was moved off away from the sea org, now an apparent suicide risk and a full-time personal keeper was assigned to look out for him. All his travels and travails had brought him to living with his keeper in an old house in the western suburbs of Sydney. Basically an outlaw.

He had nothing left and on March 13th 2007 he unplugged the machine that was keeping his body running and one last time Schobs made his own causative decision and that was to bring down the curtain on this life.

There was no memoriam for Schobs -- as per usual from David Miscavige.  He deserved a lot more -- his mega possessions were shared around as he had directed and one last request -- he left a case of VB for his mates to enjoy.

Written by Chris Guider