<p><em>Alan LeRoy Davis</em> was born to Robert and Ruby Davis on April 30, 1956. He graduated from Glenbard North High School, where he was on the track and cross country teams, participated in the chess and German clubs, and served as editor of the school newspaper. The son of a father and grandfather who served their country across two World Wars, he sought and received a congressional appointment to West Point from the 14th District of Illinois, joining the new cadets of Second New Cadet Company as part of the Class of 1978.</p>
<p>As a cadet at West Point, Al was among a group of plebes assigned to I-1, a company notorious in those years for culling the incoming classes. With a great sense of humor and assisted by the cohesiveness developed amongst fellow plebes, Al counted himself as one of that year’s survivors. As he noted later, only one of his plebe roommates made it through to Recognition Day. His sense of humor, with a bit of mischievousness, helped him develop his yearling reputation for being able to pull off the best tricks on unsuspecting plebes. Being scrambled to Fourth Regiment for his last two cadet years, Al took some of that humor and discipline with him to H-4. Across his cadet years he also continued some of his high school passions, notably by participating in intermural cross country championships and on the Pointer staff. He also expanded his activities to the Outdoor Sportsman’s Club and Karate. Of course, one seminal event was meeting his wife-to-be, Danette, by doing a favor for a classmate and going on a classic blind date! </p>
<p>After graduation and commissioning in the Field Artillery, Lieutenant Davis was posted to XVIII Airborne Corps Artillery. As a captain, Al said his most fearless work was as service battery commander for the lone battalion (1-14th FA) posted in northern Germany. With nuclear capable tubes pointed at the Soviets, he dared them to come over the northern German plains! Subsequently, he was an aide-de-camp before moving into logistics, which would drive his life’s work and significantly influence his test and evaluation roles. While Al left active duty in 1989, he remained in the Reserves until his retirement as a major in 1998. He graduated from the Army Command and General Staff College and earned a master’s degree from George Washington University in operations research.</p>
<p>Arguably, Al’s most influential and important work for the Army came after he left active duty and started work as a civilian with the Army Test and Evaluation Command. There he conducted the test and evaluation of the Army’s Future Combat System. He was a tester of UAVs, from their infancy, including the Predator. He did evaluations of Air Defense missile systems, Apache helicopters, weather systems, and even GPS receivers when they were 20-pound boxes. Moving to the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, he ran the Initiatives Assessment Branch. Al was instrumental in evaluating systems responding to a critical warfighter need, IED defeat, for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Those that passed his muster saved countless lives in theater.</p>
<p>Al’s last career transition was to the Transportation Security Administration as manager for the Office of Security Capabilities (OSC) Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) organization. He and his team grew OT&E to become the first accredited Operational Test Agency within DHS, conducting tests on a myriad of security systems for their effectiveness and suitability. During his tenure, the team led an impressive number of tests, testing 14 different systems in operational scenarios to improve the quality of airport security. Baggage scanners and full-body scanners catch things every day thanks, in part, to the standards Al and his team established.</p>
<p>Taken from us too soon, Al succumbed to glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, on January 13, 2013 at his home in Sterling, VA. He was buried at Holy Savior Cemetery, Bethlehem, PA, following a full military funeral under blue skies. In one final irony that Al would have appreciated, the VFW honor guard that provided the three-volley salute was made up mostly of Navy veterans.</p>
<p>Al was so many things to so many people throughout his life. How do you capture that in a few short words? I think it is best summed up by Danette’s description a few years after Al’s passing: “Imagine a man replete with all the character of the best qualities one can hope for honed by West Point: integrity, discipline, honor, strength, controlled emotions, sense of humor, dry wit, patient, a man who commanded respect, a team player, success in a career, a good employer, a protector of our country, a teacher with exceptional elocution that matures like wine over time (except for his lame jokes that always made everyone groan), a wonderful engineer, mathematician, and scientist, a scout master teaching young men to count the pace in a blind canyon, a loving and affectionate father of four children, a faithful husband, always praying and reading the Bible, humble, full of exceptional wisdom, and always asking God for more wisdom like Solomon.” </p>
<p>It can be said of Al Davis that he set his sails on a steady path early in life and did not veer off course throughout. He honored God and his country in every word and deed. His influence is lasting and will affect the generations of people he touched and loved well beyond his family, whether they realize it or not. In the words of our Alma Matter, “May it be said, ‘Well Done; Be Thou at Peace.’”</p>