Air Force Flight Test Center welcomes new executive director

  • Published
  • By John Haire
  • Air Force Flight Test Center Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Who is David C. "Dave" Bond? The new executive director of the Flight Test Center some would say. But Mr. Bond is more than that.

Sporting a warm grin and sparkling eyes, Mr. Bond is the son of a mail carrier who grew up in the small town of McMinnville, Tenn. His dad, also a veteran of World War II who sailed aboard the USS Enterprise through some of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific Theater, instilled in him a strong work ethic with the foundation that "God gives you the ability, but it's up to you to use it."

This foundation includes a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering from Tennessee Technical University in 1971, several tough and challenging jobs as a program manager and program director both for the Navy at the Naval Weapons Laboratory in Dahlgren, Va., and then Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. He then moved on to become the deputy director of operations at Air Force Materiel Command, Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, and ultimately to the home of the "right stuff" here at Edwards.

Mr. Bond describes this assignment as the chance of a lifetime, a dream come true with unlimited potential for contribution to the vital systems our warfighters depend on.

Mr. Bond said he leads by being an enabler, knocking down barriers, providing training and vision and allowing those who work for him to excel. He also said he believes retention is an important part of leadership.

"We have to structure our jobs so we allow those who want to serve to grow, to produce and leverage the positive," he said.

Promotions and award recognition are things Mr. Bond said are important, but not the most important thing in a job.

"When we look and see that we delivered a product and it's going to save the lives of the American warfighter, that's tremendous," Mr. Bond said. "If you focus on that, then when you go home, you feel good about what you have done. At the end of the year you can look back and say, 'I had a good year, I really enjoyed this.'"

In his view, the greatest challenge of the future is the budget. He said cuts and changes that are going to come out in defense over the next few years are going to be more dramatic than any we have seen in the recent past.

Another huge challenge he said he sees is evolution into a Test and Evaluation enterprise -- viewing Edwards as part of a bigger entity.

He said contributing to that enterprise by working with our partners like Eglin AFB, Fla., and Arnold can leverage our contribution into the larger whole in producing a more valuable product.

Looking toward National Security Personnel System, Mr. Bond said he feels it's not to be feared. For Edwards, the step we are taking from Acquisition Demonstration to NSPS is a small one.

"I don't see it as being a huge leap, or something we should fear. Things change and we adapt to it. It will be a much smaller hill looking backward than it was looking forward," he said.

Mr. Bond said he is not worried about an aging work force, feeling it has been over stated.

"You hear various figures like 50 percent of the work force will be eligible for retirement in five years. It is an issue needing to be dealt with, but the reality is that many of us choose not to retire as soon as we are eligible," he said. "We are an aging work force, but we have to keep it in perspective and work through it, deal with the reality and not the hypothetical, and not create imaginary mountains."

As far as personal goals, Mr. Bond said he wants to look after our people by enabling them to be the best they can be and to improve the T&E enterprise.

"The people here are even better than I thought or imagined," he said. "When I look at the opportunities to work with the folks here, it's exciting."