Jack I. Gregory, Jr.

Jack I. Gregory, Jr., was the director for mission support from 2014 to 2019 at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. He was responsible for the center’s acquisition, transportation, logistics, facility maintenance and engineering, human resources, protective services and export control in support of the center’s mission of advancing science and technology through flight.

Prior to joining Armstrong and after completing 29 years of military service, Gregory joined the federal government as a civil servant serving as chief of staff for the U.S. Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base. As the executive manager for a 250-person headquarters, he synchronized the activity of a workforce of 18,000 and was responsible for the Air Force’s developmental testing of aerospace systems at four major operating locations at more than 30 other sites. He also guided the center through a major reorganization that resulted in the consolidation of all Air Force developmental test activities under a single, unified test center.

During his active-duty Air Force career, from which he retired as a colonel and pilot with more than 3,400 flight hours in F-4 and F-16 aircraft, he served as deputy commander of the 9,000 Air Force personnel based in Alaska and, earlier, as deputy commander of the Department of Defense’s second largest base and test facility, establishing strategic direction and allocating resources for developmental flight test programs while directing a $1 billion annual budget and managing a $6 billion physical plant.

Prior to these assignments, he commanded a 500-person flying organization that operated from four different locations providing flight evaluations of all Air Force fighter and bomber aircraft, air-to-air missiles and conventional precision guided air-to-ground munitions. While assigned to Headquarters Air Force, Gregory directed a staff charged with formulating policy for internationally sensitive issues impacting U.S. politico-military relations with 54 countries in the Middle East and Africa.

Gregory also served as a Middle East policy officer on the Secretary of Defense’s staff, developing U.S. national security strategy and defense policy for Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. In addition to multiple flying and staff assignments throughout the U.S. and in Germany and the Republic of Korea, he commanded a binational F-16 flying squadron of more than 250 U.S. and Republic of Singapore personnel.

Gregory has received numerous awards for meritorious service and outstanding achievement, including the Legion of Merit, the Aerial Achievement Medal and the Air Force’s Exemplary Civilian Service Award.

Gregory earned a Bachelor of Science in biology from Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia, a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Oklahoma and a second master’s degree in strategic studies from the U.S. Air Force’s Air University. In addition, he is a graduate of the Air Force’s Squadron Officer School, Air Command and Staff College, and Air War College, and the Department of Defense’s Armed Forces Staff College.