The survivability community encompasses many individuals who’ve spent their careers working mostly out of the spotlight but whose contributions have helped make the discipline what it is today. One such individual is Mr. Eric Edwards, the Managing Editor of this Aircraft Survivability journal (ASJ). Though many readers may not even recognize his name, for more than 36 years Eric has been a technical publications editor, writer, and trainer, working behind the scenes to help the survivability and related communities “tell their stories” regarding important research, development, test, and evaluation (RDT&E) efforts. Thus, the Joint Aircraft Survivability Program Office (JASPO) is pleased to recognize Eric for his longstanding Excellence in Survivability.
A native of northeastern Maryland, Eric entered the world of Defense technical publications in 1988, when he was selected for a college summer internship as an assistant copyeditor in the Copy Preparation Branch of the U.S. Army Ordnance Center and School at Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG). Here, he worked closely with the school’s technical instructors to review and revise the grammar, style, and format of soldier’s training manuals, qualification tests, and other materials in areas such as wheeled and tracked vehicle maintenance and recovery, armaments, munitions, explosive ordnance disposal, electronics, and tactical support equipment. Though his time at the Ordnance School was short, it didn’t take long for Eric to discover a fondness (and knack) for working with authors to assess and improve their written products. The experience also introduced Eric to the important role of written communication in helping to ensure U.S. combat personnel are safe, well-equipped, well-trained, and effective.
After completing his B.A. in print journalism from Bob Jones University in 1989, Eric returned to APG to take a permanent copyediting position in the newly established Technical Publications Office of the U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory (now the Army Research Laboratory [ARL]). If the Ordnance School was Eric’s first taste of tech editing, ARL was a full buffet in it. For the next decade, he worked with researchers from across the lab’s directorates, editorially reviewing, revising, and preparing for publication a seemingly endless stream of technical reports, journal articles, conference papers, books, and other technical documents. He also trained, mentored, and helped coordinate the efforts of other editorial/production staff, as well as led the development and maintenance of the lab’s house style guide to ensure consistency and compliance with the latest publishing standards and practices. Notable examples of the hundreds of publications Eric edited while at the ARL Tech Pubs Office include::
- The 300-page book Ballisticians in War and Peace: A History of the United States Army Ballistic Research Laboratory, Volume III
- The 4,500-page Abrams Live Fire Damage Assessment Report
- The 2,000-page Paladin Live Fire Detailed Damage Assessment Report
- The ARL Special Report “Historical Perspectives on Vulnerability/Lethality Analysis.”
In addition, many of the documentation projects Eric supported during this time were with ARL’s Survivability/Lethality Analysis Directorate, as he worked with numerous leaders (and pioneers) of the aviation survivability community, especially those involved in the study and testing of U.S. and foreign rotorcraft. Little did he realize that aircraft survivability would be the field in which his career would eventually and exclusively be focused.
In 1999, Eric returned to the classroom part-time to deepen his knowledge and expertise in his craft and be better equipped to help technical authors plan, compose, and analyze their technical messages. While continuing with his daily editing duties at ARL, he attended evening graduate classes at Towson University, ultimately completing an M.S. in professional writing in 2003.
In 2000, Eric joined the SURVICE Engineering Company in nearby Belcamp, MD, where he helped establish and lead the company’s Technical Publications Team, standardize and improve the editorial quality and consistency of the company’s technical documentation, and formalize many of its publication procedures and processes. In this role, he supported all of the company’s area operations and major Defense customers with a wide variety of editing, writing, and training services. He also established and maintained the company’s house style guide; developed an online Author’s Toolkit and writing support site; and was instrumental in creating and overseeing SURVICE’s Monograph Report series, a special publication series created to help preserve and share the specialized knowledge of various senior survivability practitioners before they retired or otherwise left the field.
Some of the notable publications Eric edited and/or contributed to during this time include:
- Lessons Learned from Live Fire Testing: A Book of Insights into Designing, Testing, and Operating U.S. Combat Systems for Maximum Survivability and Lethality, published by the Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (2004)
- Fundamentals of Ground Combat System Ballistic Vulnerability/Lethality, published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (awarded the ARL Publication of the Year) (2009)
- The APV Handbook: Guidelines for the Procurement, Testing and Management of Commercial Armored Passenger Vehicles, published by the Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office (2009)
- The Warfighter Handbook for Vehicle Survivability, published by the Joint Test and Evaluation Program Office (2012)
- The Mortuary Affairs Contaminated Remains Mitigation Site Tactical Handbook (MATH), published by the Joint Test and Evaluation Program Office (2016).
By now, Eric had firmly established a niche and reputation as a kind of “editorial engineer” in the survivability engineering community. In addition, his clear passion for his work and keen ability to absorb and understand many technical aspects of the discipline enabled him to do more than just fix grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, and format issues in documentation. Eric’s writing and training skills were also increasingly requested by numerous company and DoD customers.
For example, from 2000 through 2004, he supported ARL’s BRL-CAD team, co-authoring and coordinating the publication of the four-volume BRL-CAD Tutorial Series software manuals. (Based on this work, he would also be selected to serve on a week-long BRL-CAD Document Sprint Team at Google Headquarters in 2011 to help author the text Hacking BRL-CAD: A Contributor’s Guide.)
Additionally, in accordance with one of one of his longtime mantras—“to help improve not just writing but also writers”—Eric developed a series of popular technical writing workshops and training programs that he’s continued to teach for many years to technical groups from organizations such as SURVICE, ARL, the U.S. Army Evaluation Center, the U.S. Army Materiel Systems Analysis Activity, the Naval Air Systems Command, and the Society for Technical Communication.
In 2014, Eric was also instrumental in the establishment and early success of the DSIAC Journal, the first quarterly technical journal published by the Defense Systems Information Analysis Center (DSIAC); and he served as the journal’s Copy/Production Editor until 2018. In this role, he worked with DSIAC leaders and other production staff to help plan and implement the new journal format and design; editorially reviewed and revised all submitted content; established and enforced style guidelines; and oversaw the integration of graphics and text into the final layout.
In 2016, Eric was asked to assume the copyediting/production management duties of the ASJ as well. Having been a contributor of ASJ feature and news articles for many years, he was happy to join survivability pioneer and friend Dale Atkinson to help plan and produce the community’s legacy periodical. He assisted Dale in scouting out and soliciting prospective content and contributors and took the lead in interfacing with authors and production staff; editorially reviewing and revising articles; coordinating graphics integration, reviews, and printing/distribution; and researching and writing feature and news articles on notable survivability practitioners, aircraft, and historical events.
In 2018, as Eric’s role continued to expand on the ASJ, he relinquished his DSIAC Journal and other duties to focus solely on the ASJ’s quarterly publication. Today, as Managing Editor, he is responsible for executing and/or overseeing all planning and production activities and shepherding each issue from concept through distribution. In considering why he has been such a good fit for the journal, Eric points to his fascination with military aircraft and survivability, his passion for working with authors and researchers to publish meaningful content, and his desire to instill a “story-telling” quality in all that he writes and edits.
Outside of work, Eric enjoys hunting, hiking, traveling, spending time with family (especially his four young granddaughters), and working with his small herd of Scottish Highland cattle on part of his family’s former dairy farm in Forest Hill, MD. He also enjoys freelance feature writing and editing; has published numerous articles in periodicals such as Country magazine, the Outlaw Trail Journal, and The Aegis newspaper; and is currently documenting his father’s biography and family history.
In conclusion, “going above and beyond” to promote the survivability discipline has been a hallmark of Eric’s career. And while he hasn’t been front-and-center doing research, conducting testing, running models, or giving briefings, we’ve all benefitted from his passion for the community and his talent for helping to communicate our work in support of the Warfighter.
Congratulations, Eric, for your Excellence in Survivability; and thank you for your past, present, and future contributions to the aircraft survivability community.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr. Ron Dexter is the Vice President of the Air Force and Navy Sector at the SURVICE Engineering Company, having oversight of the company’s Air Force, Navy, and DoD Information Analysis Center (DoDIAC) programs. He has more than 35 years of experience in aircraft and munitions survivability and lethality, including nearly a decade of experience supporting survivability programs at Sikorsky Aircraft prior to joining SURVICE in 1998.
