Gary N. Stevenson began his aerospace career at General Dynamics, Fort Worth, Texas in 1981 after attending Texas A&M University in Mechanical Engineering. He established a career supporting the manufacturing operations and production of the F-16 Fighting Falcon. He participated and led several major F-16 proposals for upgrades and modernization. During the 1980s he worked on several classified programs as well as the F-22 program that developed into production during the 1990s. During the late 1990s and early 2000s he served as Senior Manager/Deputy Director of Production Engineering for the F-16 program. In addition during the mid-1990s he participated on the F-36 proposal review team and the due diligence team for the selection of the European partners for the F-35. During 2006-2007 he served as Senior Manager F-35 Production Engineering at Lockheed Martin Fort Worth.