I am a retired Naval Aviation Officer (1355), designated a Naval Aviation Observer-Controller (NAO-C 95, Dec 1952) with over 1000 operational flight hours in PB-1W‚s (modified B-17G), WV-1‚s and WV-2‚s (RC-121). I was on active duty in the U. S. Navy from 13 July 1951 to 10 Nov 1954, serving 2 years in Operational Development Squadron Four (VX-4) and Airborne Early Warning Squadron Two (VW-2), a plank owner in the first AEW (AWACS) Squadron (VW-2) in the world, which also had a secondary mission as the first radar hurricane surveillance squadron. I was the Combat Information Center Officer (CICO) on a number of operational missions including, in the fall of 1952, five NATO fleet exercise missions as the CICO of the first top-mount search radar AEW aircraft, PB-1W, BuNo 77234, shown here in a U. S. Navy photograph. I was also CICO in fleet operations on both of the only Lockheed Constellations, WV-1 (model 739), built.
I completed a Master of Science Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN in August 1958. Two of my classmates were then Naval Aviators Neil Armstrong and Roger Chafee, who showed evidence even then of outstanding leadership abilities in class activities. I was employed by General Dynamics, Fort Worth as a Stability and Control Engineer and worked on the B-58 and the F-111 (TFX). I was later employed as a military aviation analyst by the Research Analysis Corporation, McLean, Virginia and as a Senior Staff Scientist with Autometric, Inc. of Arlington, Virginia.