Monday, January 21, 2013

I Hunted Storms

Tracing my roots: from Naval Aviator to systems integrator
by Kerwin N.

My Lockheed Martin experience spans over 40 years and three diverse chapters of my life.
My first connection goes way back, at the age of 20 in the spring of 1959. I was in flight training with the Navy and flew instrument training quals in the back seat of the Lockheed T2V jet training aircraft. When I completed flight training, my first assignment was the world famous United States Navy Hurricane Hunters. We flew into (and out of) hurricanes in the Lockheed Willie Victor, a military version of the Super Constellation.
Years later, in 1976, having left the Navy and working in the life insurance industry, I met Cortland Gross, Lockheed CEO at the time. He was our board of directors audit committee chair, and as manager of EDP (now IT) auditing, I briefed him on this newly formed function.
More years later, in 1985, I joined GE Aerospace, soon to become Martin Marietta, then Lockheed Martin. I was an individual contributor in systems integration for 15 years, and retired in 2000.
Great airplanes, great people, great place to work!

The Super Constellation