Warfighters at Northrop

First, I will state that I have only admiration and gratitude for those in our military, past and present. The following might seem trite - I believe it to be very true: "We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm." Our military is trained by our government to kill people and break things on our behalf using the very best technology that a lowest-bid contractor can provide.

When I started working at Northrop Aircraft Company in 1978, there were a number of warfighters in the Systems Analysis Group.

At that time, Northrop had in its employ a number of pilots from World War II, Korean War and Viet Nam War to form the Operational Analysis group. The idea was to have a bunch of guys who actually were in war time situations and knew exactly how air commanders would deploy aircraft and pilots in battle. This made the "what if" analysis more plausible, and the analysis would stand up to the scrutiny of those who were veterans of those wars.

This is in contrast to what has been done recently, where the analysis is done with some computer model that the war-fighters would not understand, and the person running the model is some twenty-two year college graduate who never seen the inside of a war plane. Sometimes we will have the situation where the young analyst gets to decide how the war is to be fought, how many and what aircraft are to be deployed, etc. without consultation with a war-fighter types who would otherwise offer a "sanity check".

I talked to these war-fighters as the new young guy with the idea of learning what it was like to have fought in a war where people were trying to kill you while you were trying to kill them, or doing your best to avoid being killed.

What I remember the most about the war-fighters was how I was impressed with the sense of humility of the typical war-fighter. I got that they knew that better men than they had died and not survived the war. Sometimes it was a matter of luck that determines if one lived or died. There was no rhyme or reason as to who died and who lived. There were also accidents that would kill them just as dead.

Then there are the peace-time Air Force and Navy pilots who have been hired by Northrop Grumman because they can "walk the walk" and "talk the talk" when they are dealing to the Air Force or Navy customer. The peace-time pilots have only fired weapons as part of training and proficiency exercises, and not to intentionally kill. There's only the possibility that they have accidentally killed somebody.

The life-or-death situations these peace-time pilots face usually involve somebody being stupid, careless, or negligent - these things will get a pilot killed just as dead. In my opinion, this is different than the situation where the enemy is trying to kill you while you are trying to kill them, or trying your best to avoid being killed.

However, I don't always get that sense of humility that I had found in the war-fighter in these peace-time pilots. This is not a knock on the peace-time pilots, it is what it is.

In either case, Northrop Aircraft Company and later Northrop Grumman Corporation has had its war-fighters and peace-time pilots.

What they all have in common is their willingness to risk life and limb in the performance of their work during their service with the government. We all should be thankful to them for this.


Disclaimer: SORRY - This is only what I know from my point of view. No lies, just what I see as the truth.