USAFA Class Heritage

John D. Shmoldas, Col (USAF Retired) 3996 Corte Cancion Thousand Oaks CA 91360 John Shmoldas entered the United States Air Force Academy in June 1959 under Congressional Appointment from Houston, Texas.  He graduated on both the Dean's list and Commandant's list for Academic and Military Excellence in 1963.  After graduation, Mr. Shmoldas completed pilot training and served in Viet Nam, flying 231 combat missions in RF-4C aircraft.  Operational command pilot experience included extensive combat readiness, instructor pilot, standardization and evaluation flight examiner, and operational supervision tours.  Later assignments included F-5 Aggressor operations supervision, operational test and evaluation, and a special assignment to recommend changes to the USAF operational requirements process in response to the Packard Commission legislation.  He has over 3000 hours flying time in the RF-4C, F-5E and other fighter aircraft. He currently flies sailplanes in the California Mojave desert and the Sierras including providing acrobatic rides for the "Wounded Warrior" Program  John retired as a Colonel from the USAF in July 1987. His operational flying assignments included Shaw AFB, Ton Son Nhut, SVN, Mountain Home AFB, RAF Alconbury, Bergstrom AFB TX, and Eglin AFB. His staff assignments included Headquarters United States Air Force Europe, Wiesbaden AB, as the Aide to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Air Forces in Europe; Assistant Deputy Commander for Operations at the Tactical Air Warfare Center, Florida; and Headquarters United States Air Force in the Electronic and Reconnaissance Requirements Directorate, Deputy Chief of Staff for Research and Development, the Pentagon, Washington, D.C from which he retired. After serving in the USAF,  Mr. Shmoldas served as Business Development Manager for Missiles and advanced unmanned systems at Northrop's Aircraft Division in Hawthorne, California.  During his five years at Northrop, he developed national and international marketing strategies for a new concept lethal loitering defense suppression missile system, served as the principal contact for congressional briefings, and developed and implemented a total quality system for new business generation and proposal processes for the Aircraft Division.  As Deputy Proposal Manager for the Joint Primary Advanced Training Systems, Mr. Shmoldas developed the proposal strategy and proposal plan for a three billion dollar plus competitive program for Northrop Mr. Shmoldas left MBDA Inc. in April 2003 as Vice President Business Development where he developed mission statements, business strategy and long range plans to expand the companies precision guided weapons business into new United States Department of Defense and with international customers.  He created a concept and established a broad market with his patented Diamond Back joined wing range extension design.  The wing is the primary feature and benefit of the Mid Life Upgrade, a $60M contract negotiated over three years with the UAE and finally secured in 2003. MBDA also won a more than $500M dollar USAF Small Diameter Bomb wing kit program with Diamond Back which will transition the company into a balanced recurring and non recurring engineering concern and sustain it over the next 15 years. Mr. Shmoldas retired as a Colonel from Headquarters United States Air Force in June 1987.  His last Pentagon duties were Chief of the Joint Concepts Division and Deputy Chief of the Weapons Division, Operational Requirements, including responsibilities for new weapon requirements, reconnaissance and surveillance requirements, and other joint service requirements including providing the USAF secretariat to the Joint Requirements Oversight Council. Mr. Shmoldas also has a master's degree in Systems Management from the University of Southern California, is a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College-Program Managers Course, and has attended numerous other professional military courses.  He is married with two children and lives in Thousand Oaks, California.