National Engineers Week: Event geared toward recruiting new generation, praising existing engineers

Published Feb. 21, 2008
By Brandice J. Armstrong
Tinker Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE -- National Engineers Week kicks off Feb. 17.
   The annual event, which was established by the National Society of Professional Engineers in 1951, is geared toward attracting a younger generation of engineers and praising those already in the field. At Tinker, the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center Engineering Directorate will host area high school students for a job shadowing experience.
   "My goal is to get young folks interested in working for the Air Force or the government in an engineering career and give our folks who do tremendous things some recognition," said Russell Howard, OC-ALC/EN director.
   The teenagers will visit Feb. 21 and 22 from Midwest City and Mustang High Schools, and the Francis Tuttle Technology Center Pre-Engineering Academy, respectively. Students from Midwest City and Mustang are participating via a Tinker partnership with Boeing. Both groups will tour science labs, meet with scientists and engineers and have an overall hands-on experience.
   "We want to encourage them to stay in the harder math, physics, and chemistry courses," Mr. Howard said. "It's a well-paying profession and there's a great source of jobs here; and they can go home at night knowing they made a difference to their nation."
   An engineers' work at Tinker is vital to the mission and aircraft, Mr. Howard said.
   It is an engineers' job to investigate accidents and fix damaged aircraft. There are some 1,200 scientists and engineers in the directorate. Of them, about 40 are military officers.
   Many, including Richard Shirley, chief of the physical sciences laboratory, who has been at Tinker more than 40 years, will likely soon retire. Capturing and transferring his knowledge to a younger generation including Jennifer Tromble, metallurgical engineer in the physical sciences laboratory, who has been at Tinker less than five years, can bring Tinker into the next generation.
   "Some of the aircraft and materiel we're working with are so outdated, they don't teach it at school anymore," Ms. Tromble said. "It's really important to have that transfer of knowledge from our seniors who have been here 25 years to the new young engineers coming in."
   Mr. Howard agreed.
   "We're into regimes that the original designers never imagined," he said. "A lot of aircraft were designed for relatively short lives and we're still flying them like the (Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers)."
   Yet, overall, each member makes a difference, Mr. Howard said.
   "We have a fantastic scientist and engineering workforce that I'd put up against anybody, anywhere," Mr. Howard said. "Their dedication and their intelligence capabilities, innovation is quite flexible. They're heroes."