By Denise Deon Wilson, PAO for PEO-T

The Program Executive Officer for Tactical Aircraft (PEO-T) change of command ceremony on September 17th will mark an end to an era that spans over three decades. The ceremony will signify Radm Gib Godwin’s departure from NAVAIR, as well as naval aviation… at least for now. After 31 years of service in naval aviation (12 of those years at NAVAIR) Godwin is embarking on what some say will be the biggest challenge of his career. He is taking over the helm of NMCI and, pardon the pun, is jumping right into a hornet’s nest of challenges.

While working in a hornet’s nest is customary to Radm Godwin, this new nest will not resemble the one he became accustomed to while serving at NAVAIR. As he prepares to depart close friends and colleagues, many who have become accustomed to that Texas style and his own “Gib’berish” slang, he took a moment to reflect on his career in naval aviation.

Radm Godwin’s journey to NAVAIR began in February 1992 while he was the Commanding Officer (CO) of a Hornet squadron deployed aboard the USS Independence (CV-62). Contemplating his next assignment, Godwin recalls a phone conversation he had with then Rear Admiral John Lockard who was serving as the Program Executive Officer for Tactical Aircraft (PEO-T). During the conversation, then ‘Commander’ Godwin asked for advice on whether or not to come to NAVAIR and says, “I put my career at his mercy.” After his discussion with Lockard, there was no looking back.

Upon completing his tour as CO of VFA-192, Godwin reported to NAVAIR in July 1992 for his new assignment in the F/A-18 Program Office as PMA265’s Class Desk Officer. He spent 29 months in this position where his primary responsibility was leading the F/A-18E/F thought the critical design phase. He was promoted to captain while in PMA265 and also served as co-Deputy Program Manager for Production and Systems Development for the F/A-18A/B/C/D and new systems developments. His next assignment at NAVAIR was as the Executive Assistant (EA) to now Vice Admiral Lockard, and after 11 months in this capacity, he was selected to become the program manager of PMA265. After three years as program manager, Godwin fleeted up to become PEO-T.

Reflecting on career guidance he has received from navy leadership over the years, Godwin says, “I’ve been fortunate to have had tremendous mentoring by Joe Dyer, Jeff Cook, John Lockard, Steve Briggs, Brett Bennitt and others, who have helped me along the way. Probably one of the biggest consistent threads along this whole journey has been Ned Conger. He’s been both a friend, a consultant and a long time historian for the F/A-18 program.”

Ned Conger, long time contract support for the PMA265 and currently employed by AI-EA says, “Admiral Godwin, a former strike fighter squadron skipper and landing signal officer, brought a unique fleet focus to his management of the F/A-18 program and later to all of NAVAIR's tactical aircraft programs. This attribute, combined with his ability to focus the attention and talent of the aerospace industry on the challenges of tactical aviation has contributed enormously to the unsurpassed capability available today on the flight decks of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers.”

When asked to highlight his proudest accomplishment thus far, Radm Godwin replies, “Well it’s hard to pick one because there have been so many tremendous things that I have had the privilege to be part of. One of the most unique though, was arriving to NAVAIR in 1992 to a program, the Super Hornet, when it was just a piece of paper and see it through to become the cornerstone of naval aviation.”

Godwin recalls a timeline that included working through the Super Hornet’s design reviews and providing input for its engineering development. “It was an incredible time to be able to work with the program in those stages of design and development. Then, having the opportunity to remain with the program as it moved on to delivery of the development aircraft, then into test and ultimately, deliver the aircraft to the fleet operators, was an amazing opportunity. I was fortunate enough to still be part of the program as it took its first shot out of the barrel and became a war fighting asset, going straight into combat on its first deployment. I don’t think I could ask for anything more in a career. That’s my proudest stretch right there.”

Radm Godwin’s proudest accomplishment is also a highly acclaimed naval aviation achievement; a safe and successful Super Hornet engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) program that concluded on schedule, on budget and under weight. Godwin credits the unique partnership between the Hornet Industry Team and the Navy that used a fully integrated team to conduct developmental flight and ground testing concurrently from a single location. “An integrated test team (ITT) involves everyone up front. It eliminates some of the flights required and that means less flight times, which means less cost. You collect more data on every flight that everyone can utilize, which ultimately saves time and money.”

Recalling the Super Hornets ITT, Godwin says one of the biggest success factors was starting with open and honest communications and selecting the leadership who shared the same vision. “We searched the country looking for someone to lead the ITT who bled the same way we did. Someone who would use open, honest and direct communication. We used the same criteria when we selected each and every pilot both on the navy and industry side. Then we dug down even deeper bringing aboard an operational tester as part of the developmental team for total insight into what we were doing. It wasn’t always flowers and candy we were delivering to each other but the good news is that at the end of the day, we all saw the right thing to do.”

Godwin goes on, “If we look across history at a test and development program, we may have been one of the first aircraft programs ever to go through development mishap free. In a high-risk flight test program, with five or six pilots on the navy side, and five or six pilots on industry side, and to go through over 4,600 flight hours in less than three and half years, and not drop a beat nor lose an airplane…that is a tremendous accomplishment.”

As PEO-T, Godwin infused the ITT concept as the way of conducting business across his programs. “Being able to take that experience that we gained from the Super Hornet EMD and being able to replicate it throughout all of the programs in PEO-T has really given us the opportunity to take our programs one step beyond. The teamwork and communication is at the heart of it all. Development and operational test for ICAP III, AIM-9X and MIDs, to name just a few programs, has benefited from integrated teamwork and open communication.”

As he departs familiar territory and heads into the choppy waters of NMCI, Godwin will face new challenges, “I watched NMCI evolve over time to where it is today and I certainly have significant challenges in front of me. Three key ones are customer satiation, the continuation of seat delivery to folks who haven’t transitioned yet and third, as NMCI hits the three-year point, the tech refresh will need to be accomplished.”

He goes on to say, “but there is so much more to be done and I really look forward to blazing some news trails as we get past those three issues and really get into continuing to drive NMCI into the FORCEnet integrating everything we do across the navy and marine corps. “

“There are tremendous opportunities that lie out in front of me. I’m looking forward bringing aboard that same sense of teamwork, open communication and cooperation, as we continue to stand up the largest single integrated network that there is. That is a pretty tall order but I’m ready for it.”

Looking back on his past 31 years in naval aviation, Radm Godwin feels that his fleet experience shaped the way he thinks and gave him ability today to teach other people how the operators are using our NAVAIR products. Godwin says, “I think that everything I learned though my 19 years of flying airplanes were just building blocks that were setting me up to be where I am today.”

Moving on from what he often would describe as the ‘best job in the navy’, Godwin says of his departure, “I guess I would characterize this the same way as I did when I was leaving the fleet and coming to NAVAIR. You go through stages of your life where those things that you have accomplished are things in the past. When I moved from the fleet to NAVAIR to apply what I had learned as an operator to the engineering discipline, I didn’t have time to look back as a hornet pilot.”

He continues, “And now after being in this business for the last four years as the PEO and looking back on the accomplishments we had in the acquisition world, I leave this job grateful that I lived during this time to be able to be part of the achievement and see the successes that have come.”

“As I move on to this next job, I look at all those things I learned in the last 12 years at NAVAIR as things that I can apply in the new world I’m in. In not too many years, I’ll have to make the transition from military life to civilian workforce life. I think it’s once again, taking away significant things where I’m at and applying them where I’m going. It’s about looking forward and not looking back.”

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