Favorite Color: Blue
Favorite Snack: Peaches
Favorite Movie: Likes John Wayne
Recreation/Hobby: "I go fishing."
Favorite TV Show: Reba
Favorite Childhood Toy: Football
How Many Push-Ups Can You Do? "Over 50." (We think Tony wins the push-up award.)

What are you currently working on?
"I'm working on a lot of different projects that are incredibly relevant to our country's position in the world. If you watch CNN, there are a lot of smart weapons with GPS-guided systems that target a specific location. There are also sensor-fusion systems on the F-22s, with weighted input sensors on the aircraft itself. All those inputs are brought together in an algorithm for the best solution. My engineers are currently working on integrating smart weapons into the various platforms, so we'll have the F-22s or the JSF all integrated."

How is the weapons branch unique?
"The weapons branch is unique because we are at the heart of the Air Force. Weapons-on-target is the primary objective of the Air Force. We have a tremendous amount of energy in our branch because we have a lot of young people with great minds. There is just some fantastic knowledge that is here. That seems to build great teamwork throughout the base. We all have a common vision."

What was your best moment at Edwards?
"Watching a B-2 chasing an F-16 with the sun just right. There are so many cool things happening out here it's difficult to say which one is the best moment."

Tell us about your career at Edwards. Any highlights?
"I was working on the F-16s for over 10 years. When I left, I really believed that it couldn't get any better than this. Then I went to the Test Safety Office for two years, and I saw every platform on base - the F-117s, B-2s, F-22s, B-52s, the B-1s, F-15s, and F-16s. And again, I thought it couldn't get any better. Then I went to the Engineer Development Office, where we develop the foundation for training for all the Engineering Directorates. It just gets better!"

Tell us about the New Engineering Program. We understand you helped develop it?
"We spent the last three to five years developing our New Engineering Program, where we take the first four weeks of each consecutive month to train new hires. We have an Air Force overview and an Edwards overview. Then we spend three weeks in avionics and flight dynamics."

Walk us through the career path of a new engineer.
"Typically in Engineering, we hire an Aerospace Engineer, a Mechanical Engineer, or an Electrical Engineer. We try to bring them into a specific discipline, and then we try to broaden them from there, to maybe an operational position. We hook you up with a mentor when you arrive. We also have a training plan for the first 12 months. We also try to move you into different areas, so we may take you from a discipline at the F-16 into a B-2. After a while, we may put you in a lead position. And there are also various career paths, like the United States Air Force Test Pilot School, which we try to get at least one civilian in a year. Then there's also graduate school, which is called Long-Term Full-Time Training, where we send you away for 9-18 months to work on advanced academic studies."

What do you do to relax around here?
"The golf course is a good way to relax out here-it's got a great view. Think about it, while you are playing golf, you may see a B-2 take off, or a C-17 land. It's something you won't see elsewhere."

How do you find the local community here?
"The local community is great. We have four distinct seasons - we get snow, a beautiful spring, beautiful fall and a mild summer. Lancaster and Palmdale are growing rapidly. There are a lot of good educational opportunities in the schools. The schools here are some of the best in the country. Also, you're only a stone's throw from Los Angeles, so you have tremendous culture there. You're three hours from Mammoth for skiing and about two hours from the ocean."

What makes Edwards so unique?
"Edwards is where flight tests happen. If you look at some of the greatest events in aerospace history in the last 60 years, most of it has been tested at Edwards. Look at the X aircraft, the F-16s in the 70s, the Stealth in the 80s, and now in the new millennium, we have the sensor-fusion aircrafts utilized in the F-22s and the JSFs…we are always developing great things and meeting challenges."