John M. O'Rourke

dromahair@aol.com

_____Jack the Early Years___________Jack the Formative Years_______________Jack the Sage_____

Education

B.S. Aeronautics - Parks College of Aeronautical Technology -

Aircraft Maintenance Engineering major - commissioned 2nd Lieutenant in the USAF

M.S. Systems Management - University of Southern California - Area of concentration in Research and Development

Graduate of USAF Air Command and Staff School Distinguished Graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces

Personal

Married Ginger Gilman in 1964, our daughter, Kelle was born in 1967 and we have two granddaughters, Samantha and Summer.

We live on a patch of sand in the Mojave Desert with 14 horses, 4 dogs, too many cats and at latest count 17 geese in El Norte Mexico (formerly known as California).

Some have asked "What's a Dromahair?" It is the name of a village in Ireland which is the Seat of the O'Rourkes, Princes of Breffry, where my father was born and the name of our patch of sand - Dromahair Farms.

Professional

I stopped by MAC Air posing as a hydraulics engineer for a cup of coffee and a paycheck or two after graduation. Entered USAF in May of 1957 and attended Pre-Flight, Navigation, Radar Intercept schools over the next eighteen months.

Spent the next five and a half years as a radar intercept and maintenance officer with the 75th and 76th Fighter Interceptor Squadrons.

In May of '64 I got married and we proceeded to the best assignment one could ever dream of - the 4750th Test Squadron (OT&E) at the Air Defense Weapons Center, Tyndall AFB FL. I served as a project officer testing radar and infrared fire control systems, aircraft systems and participated in weekly weapons systems evaluation involving live firing missions of AIM 4, 7 and 9 missiles as well as the ATR-2A (dummy training round of the nuclear AIR-2A air intercept rocket)

Introduced the first live firing of AF missiles against maneuvering targets. Even got to work with Bob Seh on one of his ECM projects.

Next came F4 training in '68/'69 followed by an all expenses paid sojourn to sunny SEA where I again lucked out by being assigned to the 433rd TFS/8th TFW and continued OT&E of laser guided bombing and the first operational use of LORAN in bombing and sensor emplacement along the infamous Mac Namara's fence. Finished my tour as the wing weapons officer and flew my champagne mission on my 36th birthday. When I think of the fun I had getting to shoot all those missiles at Tyndall - little did I ever envision that someone was going to return the favor. I like to think we were winning the war when my tour ended but a 7th AF briefing that week showed that while we registered 75% more destruction than the year before, the bad guys increased throughput by 100%. At that point, even my cloudy remembrance of Herr Bloom's math classes and I could clearly hear his voice saying "dat dis vas not goot".

On to Davis-Montham and Luke AFBs '70-'73 to train future F4 students in the delicately applied sciences of radar, inertial navigation, weapons control computers, missiles and various other weapons. Flying air to ground training missions at night with 2nd Lieutenants can pucker your sphincter as well as turn your hair gray.

Duty at Spangdahlem AB Germany home of the Wild Weasels in 73-77 saw me serving as project officer for the introduction on LORAN and PaveTAC equipped F4-Es into USAFE. In the AF's infinite wisdom, it was decided that us "old" guys proved embarrassing to the fast burner teenager squadron commanders and I was put on the bench after 18 years of combat ready status. I finished the tour as the lead USAF negotiator with the German AF for the dual use of their air bases for follow on forces.

Next came 18 months at the AF's Fighter Weapons Center, Nellis AFB, home of TAC's weapons school, the Thunderbirds, OT&E, Red Flag and the world's largest and busiest fighter operations base as director of plans. I retired in Jan of 1979.

The years '79-'91 saw me at General Dynamics Air Defense Division in beautiful downtown Pomona and Rancho Cucamonga, CA. Initially I conducted operations research studies of the division's weapons complement against various scenarios. This led to work developing the division's long range technology plan and eventually to leading the division's strategic planning process. The division was being prepared for sale to Hughes and presented an opportunity to retire with grace and I did so in April of '91.

During '87-'91, I also moonlighted as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Southern California teaching graduate students R&D Management.

Dabbled in the consulting business for a while and got bored silly with the paper work, when an old boss convinced me that McDonnell Douglas Electronic Systems' laser group could make good use of my background with lasers. I signed on in late '91 to develop new business approaches for the technology thrusts for the engineering function. Three months into the task the engineering manager bailed and I wound up running the group of 135 engineers in the development, design and transition to production of laser products in the defense, commercial and space markets. I hadn't moved my family to St. Louis and I wound up commuting every other week between Missouri and California. After about 60 round trips and I got to know every flight crew member on that route by their first name, I decided to it was time to cease being stupid and retire again.

For the rest of '94 through the summer of '99 it was back to the consulting arena this time as a contractor to an old GD colleague who beat the bushes for work and did the paperwork while I got to play with the details.

Mid '99 another GD colleague lured me into taking a consulting position with Rockwell Collins as liaison to a sister division in CA. We were developing a wireless hardware set and associated software to bring wireless internet and entertainment to commercial airlines as well as business aviation. Alas, good intentions and hard work failed to prevail.

The sister division wouldn't bite and in 2003 I presented myself with a Christmas gift and retired again. My wife tells me I should keep at this retirement thing, one day I might get it right.

Not so, back to the consulting thing again, only this time I only take assignments that really interest me and involve only limited time.