This month’s guest speaker is a Fort Worth local: Lt Col Ivan J. (Jerry) Singleton 

Lt. Col. Jerry Singleton was commissioned into the US Air Force in 1962 after completing an aeronautical engineering degree at the University of Tulsa. After finishing combat crew training, he flew 255 combat missions in Vietnam in the F-100D Super Sabre. He flew three additional combat missions as a door gunner in a Huey Gunship through an exchange program with an Army gunship squadron and was awarded the Silver Star and two Distinguished Flying Crosses for his heroism and valor in combat. 

Lt. Col. Singleton served many roles during his 20-year long military career, including serving as an experimental test pilot on various fighter-type aircraft. He graduated from the USAF Test Pilot School (TPS) in July 1969 at the top of his class and then, until 1973, was an instructor for TPS courses in airbreathing and rocket propulsion, an instructor pilot in the F-104, NF-104, and A-7 aircraft, and ultimately the Project Manager of the NF-104 high performance, supersonic aerospace trainer that served as an astronaut training vehicle. Jerry performed multiple “zoom” profiles in the NF-104 to altitudes of 110,000 feet. He attained 111,500  on 18 January 1971 using a 50-degree climb angle. 

From 1973 to 1974, Jerry was the Chief of Test & Evaluation for the USAF air-to-air Weapon System Evaluation Program (WSEP) known as “Combat Sage” at Clark Air Base in the Philippines. Jerry returned to Edwards in 1974 as the Chief of Flight Safety and an F-4 Project Test Pilot. He was the Project Manager and Test Pilot for Peace Jack, an F-4E test program for Israel  that was conducted by General Dynamics.

In May 1976, Jerry became the Deputy Test Director of the F-15 Joint Test Force (JTF) at Edwards until his retirement in 1978. From 1978 to 1982, Jerry was the Chief of Flight Operations at the General Dynamics Air Force Plant Representative Office (AFPRO) in Fort Worth and managed F-16 production flight testing. In 1982, Jerry became the Senior Engineering Flight Test Pilot for Mitsubishi  Aircraft’s certification of the MU-300, Diamond 1, twin-engine executive jet. 

In 1984, Jerry became and Engineering Test Pilot Consultant for Piper Aircraft and participated in all aspects of the performance, stability and control, and weapons separation testing for the experimental PA-48 Enforcer being developed as a turboprop-powered light close air support aircraft. 

Since 1986, Jerry has been the CEO of Signal Securities, a financial services firm in  Fort Worth.