I graduated from UCLA in 1960 with a major in Aeronautical Engineering and immediately went to work for Lockheed - Burbank. I started in the Bomber Works (Bldg. 360) working on the Project Leap (retrofitted) Electras and Canadian and German F-104's (at Palmdale). Sometime in 1961, Bob Gatineau "recruited" me into the Skunk Works and after waiting 6 months for my clearance I was assigned to support Hal Weber (LH photo below) as an Instrumentation Engineer on 6924 at the Area. At that time Lou Shalk had just made the first few initial flights but the article was in it's very early stages of envelope extension testing. Over the next 2 years our flight test team of pilots, FTE's (including 924's John Wallis, second from the left photo), Instrumentation Engineers, engineering support from Burbank and the vendors and of course all of the techs and mechanics coaxed the "bird" from high subsonic flight (with J-75 engines I think) through full envelope extension with the J-58's. Many modifications were made during this time, primarily to the inlets but also to almost all of the article's systems such as tank sealants, flight controls and SAS, drag chutes, tires and brakes, engines and hydraulics. I eventually took over as the lead instrumentation engineer on 924 and had full responsibility for the preflight and post flight of all of the test instrumentation and the transmittal of the flight data to the analysts at Burbank. Needless to say there were always modifications, troubleshooting and repairing of both the flight test instrumentation as well as much of the article's airframe, engines and avionics between flights.

In 1964 I moved to Lancaster to support the three YF-12A articles that had just been relocated to EAFB. I was assigned to article 6934 (S/N 1001) for the next year or so supporting several hot missile launches at the Atlantic Missile Range. I also supported the single day of record setting flights in which both Lockheed and USAF pilots set four speed and altitude world records. (See the signed photo below of the flight crews in front of the article.) In the fall of 1965, I transferred to Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. (Sunnyvale, CA) where I worked on many projects over the years, some that entailed working with and for ADP in various roles.

One of my (non-ADP) projects was the YO-3A quiet recce bird that was used briefly in Viet Nam for night, low level support in the Mekong Delta. It arrived late in the conflict but it did see some limited service.

I also worked on several RPV's including Aquila. Unfortunately the Project got wrapped around the axle with the Army and Lockheed trying to make it do everything for everyone before initial deployment.

Other winged projects included supporting our Navy bid for the AGM-88 HARM (lost it) and some classified work with ADP.

I also worked in what missiles called the "Mouse House" building lots of test and demo models for DARPA during the Viet Nam conflict. Some of them flew, such as a modified glide bomb that went after VC truck ignitions. Some were just pieces of smart avionics that got tried out and put on the shelf as the conflict wound down.

I spent the 80's working in the EW industry on what's now the integrated EW suite in the F-22 (used to be the ATF) and several packages for TR-1 pods. I was a Program Manager for a while before coming back to LMSC in about '90 to work on various NASA projects. Examples include the emergency return (to Earth) vehicle for the Space Station (which they still haven't yet resolved, other than with Soyuz!), the initial launch (cornerstone) element for the International Space Station which we (NASA) bought from the Russians and a next generation deep space telescope called SIRTF (for Space InfraRed Telescope Facility) that was just launched and will be looking way back in time, perhaps to the beginning of it all, who knows?

After the A-12 and YF-12A programs, I left the test world and took up systems engineering so that I could easily move from one project to another, generally working on the most fun parts - conceptual designs up through engineering development and tests.

I worked until September 1999 as a Systems Engineer and Project Leader in the design and development of many advanced aircraft, missiles and spacecraft. Needless to say the last 10 or 15 years were not nearly as much fun as the first 25 or 30. Urgency wasn't in our vocabulary like it was in the 60's and 70's.

I had a great career (from my perspective) and my experiences in the 60's on the A and YF programs and working for guys like Kelly and Bob Gatineau (my boss at the Area) were certainly the most memorable and exciting.

I retired from Lockheed Martin in September 1999.

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