My favorite fictional character is Star Wars’ Han Solo: He was a fighter pilot renegade, he challenged authority, and he fought the battle of good and evil.
That could describe my career. I’m a former Air Force fighter pilot and NASA space shuttle engineer, and now an expert on using high-energy lasers for defense.
I flew F-4E Phantoms during my 35-year Air Force career, and now I work with Directed Energy clients across the Department of Defense and intelligence communities. Much of the work is the stuff of science fiction, from high-energy lasers that travel at the speed of light to detect and destroy threats to high-capacity laser communications that could revolutionize our intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
It’s vital but still relatively new work in an increasingly dangerous world.