The Aerospace Professor: THE MAN AND THE BRAND

By Jeffery Battle

Who am I, Forrest Gump? The Aerospace Professor's autobiography is provocative and a compilation of dramatic, emotional, and riveting journeys from the author's early childhood through maturity. With a sm

• Language: English
• Publisher: BATTLE ENTERPRISES
• Release date: Sep 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781088043608

Jeffery Battle

Jeffery Battle, also known as The Aerospace Professor, is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Battle Enterprises, LLC and its subsidiary The Aerospace Professor Company. He is an honorable discharged U.S. Air Force veteran and has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor for the university known as the Harvard of Aviation, the world-renowned Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU); hence the name, The Aerospace Professor. Mr. Battle is a multiple degreed graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU). His academic credentials include a Master of Business Administration in Aviation (MBA/A) degree with concentrations in airline and airport management, aviation law and legislation, aviation maintenance management, and aviation rescue and recovery. He was awarded two Bachelor of Science degrees: a degree in Professional Aeronautics with a Minor in Logistics Management, and a second Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering with concentrations in electronics and environmental sciences (Columbia Southern University).The Aerospace Professor has currently completed all but the dissertation toward a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) degree. Please see more about our company's mission, credentialing and certifications, and philanthropic values on The Aerospace Professor Company's website at https://TheAerospaceProfessor.com.The Aerospace Professor was born in the small town of Scotland Neck, North Carolina; the same small town where Hollywood award-winning actress, Taraji P. Henson, spent many of her summers while visiting her grandmother. Altogether, Mr. Battle relocated three times during his grade school years and was raised partially in North Carolina, Washington D.C. and New York.Mr. Battle has more than 30 years of work experience including technology (aviation/biomedical) and federal acquisitions. His experience includes serving as a senior leader and federal Contracting Officer (CO), who achieved multiple acquisitions certifications including the highest level federal Contracting Officer's certification, the Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) Level III. In addition, he has also held an Unlimited Dollar Value Signature Authority (Warrant), with the authority to award federal contracts for unlimited dollar values. Please visit our company's website for additional information at https://TheAerospaceProfessor.com. Look Above is our slogan; "We Cannot Rise Above, Until We Begin to Look Above" - Jeffery Battle, The Aerospace Professor.

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The Aerospace Professor

The Man and The Brand

By Adjunct Professor Jeffery Battle, MBA/A, BS

Copyrights 2022 JEFFERY BATTLE

All Rights Reserved

Preface

My name is Adjunct Professor Jeffery Battle, MBA/A, BS, also known as The Aerospace Professor. I am also the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Battle Enterprises, LLC and its subsidiary The Aerospace Professor Company. The Aerospace Professor – The Man and The Brand, is my autobiography which contains true, motivational, and inspirational stories, and it also chronicles my emotional journey of self-empowerment despite an incredible number of social restrictions, setbacks, cancer, and professional barriers. I am also a service-disabled veteran. Through perseverance, ultimately, I continue to make strides. The Aerospace Professor would like to remind you to always Look Above which is my brand’s slogan. Always remember We Cannot Rise Above Until We begin to Look Above. 

Similar continuations of the number of life experiences from my childhood to adulthood are likened to the fictional Tom Hanks charter Forrest Gump’s upbringing. With a small amount of imagination, the sheer volume of my true-life experiences is similar to what a fictional character like Forrest Gump would experience. The true stories within my autobiography are compilations of systemic impedances, professional barriers, and health challenges, that ultimately led a poverty-born sharecropper farm child to discover unique ways to join the aviation and aerospace conversation, and to make a contribution to the world through self-empowerment and entrepreneurship.     

Get Up!

My autobiography is dedicated to my step-grandfather, Wendell O. Price, who showed me, tough love, by shouting at me to Get Up out of bed. As a teenager, I was planning on becoming complacent and I thought that I had done my best while spending just 1 week looking for a summer job. After that, I decided that I would instead sleep in late every day during my high school summer break because I did not find a job within 1 week.

One day my grandfather noticed what I was doing by staying in bed when he came back to the house for breakfast around 8:00 am. He started his workday as a farm sharecropper around 4:00 am. After he shouted at me to Get Up, he calmly explained to me that I would not get anything in life without first getting up. His simple but powerful two words, after I got over being startled, had a profound effect on me, and should do the same for anyone who wants to accomplish anything in life. In addition, don’t get up out of bed each day planning on just doing your best; each day we should all get up striving to do our very best!

In order to write about life, first you must live it.

– Ernest Hemingway

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Aviation Inspiration and Family Detriment

The Little Red Crop-Duster Airplane of Inspiration and Family Detriment

Poverty Times and Education Barriers

Childhood Aspirations and Attempts to Locate Space

Chapter 2 Prostate Cancer Survivor

Chapter 3 Meeting Pioneering Congresswoman    Shirley Chisholm

A Child and Young Adult’s Travels

I Was a Victim of Childhood Bullying

So Long My Friends – Rest in Peace

Chapter 4 Set Up for Failure

Segregation and my Enrollment in a Colored School

You Get An F!

Chapter 5 You Fit the Description of Criminals

One of the Good Guys, I Believed

Black Sustained Incarceration and Racial Profiling

Chapter 6 A Nonviolence Civil Rights Education from Activist Golden Frinks

Civil Rights Leader Golden Frinks in North Carolina

Civil Unrest in My Small Hometown of Scotland Neck

Protesting Injustice

Don’t Be Silent

Chapter 7 Authority Always Wins

Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 1.602-1 Contracting Authority

Fight Authority?

Unauthorized Federal Contracting Activity Defined

Unauthorized Force and Assault

Retaliation for Engaging in Authorized and Protected Activities

Authority Won Again?

Sometimes Life Will Not Be Fair

My Previous Supervisors’ Removals and Resignations After Unauthorized Activities

Losses of a Whistleblower and Discriminatory Activity

Employee Protections Unavailable

Chapter 8 Haliwa-Saponi Tribe of North Carolina

A Native American Heritage

A Celebrity Haliwa-Saponi Tribe Member

Nearly Devastated by Injury

Grandfather Perseverance

Black Diamonds

Chapter 9 On the Air With my Maternal Grandfather and Uncle Willis

Listening to Granddad’s Gospel Program on the Radio

Chapter 10 Taraji and Me

Southern Living

Chocolate City

Greetings Taraji’s Grandmother

My Dear Grandmother, Lizzie V. Price (Battle)

Hidden Figures No More?

Some Figures Remain, Hidden,

Chapter 11 High Technology Jobs as it Relates to the Different Races of America

Adversities While Working in Clinical Engineering

Pew Research Center’s Race Analysis

Chapter 12 Meeting and Greeting Tuskegee Airmen Leader General Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr.

Encounters with Tuskegee Airman General Benjamin Oliver Davis, Jr.

General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. the Patient

Top Tuskegee Airman and Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC) Patient

Elevator Talk with General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.

Airman Aim High

Presidential Farewell to General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr.

A Special Salute to the U.S. Air Force

Pioneers of Aviation and Aerospace

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Alumnus and Aerospace Pioneers

Above and Beyond

Chapter 13 The Next Frontier: The Commercial Space Industry

Are You Included in the Next Frontier?

Chapter 14 Honorably Discharged U.S. Air Force Veteran

U.S. Air Force Awards and Recognitions

Racial Tensions as Squad Leader in Basic Training

Race Adversities at my First U.S. Air Force Duty Assignment in New Mexico

Time to Shine

Service-Disabled Veteran and Benefits Deferred

History of Black Veteran Discrimination at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

The Creation of The Aerospace Professor Brand

Formal Education Achieved

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Alumni and Adjunct Staff

Unequal Opportunities in Aviation and Aerospace

An Alarming Education in the Aviation and Aerospace Business

Race Relations on Campuses

The Aerospace Professor’s Vision and Mission

Chapter 16 The Aerospace Professor’s                Animated Adventure Series

Chapter 17 Bass Guitar Funkateer and Vocalist

Art and Show Business Influences

Recruited to Join Bass Guitar Funkateer Bootsy Collins’ Entourage

William Earl Bootsy Collins Retires from the Stage

Chapter 18 An Honorable First Cousin

John Douglas Hall, North Carolina Representative, and NAACP President

John Douglas Hall’s Distinguished Obituary

A First Cousin Honored

References

Illustrations

A post-Slavery style farmhouse in Scotland Neck, North Carolina. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2018).

Jeffery Battle’s First-Grade Class Photograph.

Wedding photo of my maternal Grandmother Lizzie V. Price and Step-Grandfather Wendell O. Price; 1940s.

Communications tower on the Scotland Neck, North Carolina farm - located next to the house in which I was born. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2018).

Family water well on a farm in Scotland Neck, North Carolina.  Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2018).

The White House in Washington, DC. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019)

The Washington Monument in Washington, D.C., and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, is located to the left. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019).

The National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019).

Golden Frinks on the right, 1976. Used with the permission of the News & Observer. Housed at North Carolina State Archives, call no. NO_6009_Fr11.

[Protest with] Golden Frinks. 1976. Used with the permission of the News & Observer. Housed at North Carolina State Archives, call no. NO_6009_Fr29.

My paternal grandfather, Mr. Colefield Richardson (1902 – 2002), a full-blooded Haliwa-Saponi Native American.

William Dick Richardson, my uncle born on August 21, 1936, and outfitted in Haliwa-Saponi ceremonial clothing.

My paternal grandmother Essie Mae Richardson (Harper).

The Department of Interior’s (DOI) Federally Recognized Native American Tribe Flags. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019).

WYAL 1280 Radio Station in Scotland Neck, North Carolina.  Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019).

My Maternal Grandfather Willis Bill Battle, Sr. in the 1950s, along with the Smith Chapel Singers, sat first in the front row and at the far left.

Lizzie V. Price (Battle) my Maternal Grandmother.

Statues of Military Personnel Representing the U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Air Force, U.S Army, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Navy. The National Harbor, Oxon Hill, MD. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2018).

Pexels.com. Free stock image of eyeglasses.

U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds - Aerial Performance Team; F-16 Falcon Fighter Jets.  Pixabay.com Free Jet Fighter Photos.

Non-Commissioned Officer, Sergeant Jeffery Battle, U.S. Air Force; at home while stationed at Torrejon Air Force Base, Madrid, Spain.

F-16 Falcon Fighter Jet – Pexels.com. Free Jet Fighter Photos.

F-4 Phantom Fighter Jets – Pexels.com. Free Jet Fighter Photos.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Adjunct Faculty Appointment Documentation for Jeffery Battle, June 7, 2006.

The Aerospace Professor’s Brand Logo. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Registered. All Rights Reserved.

A U.S. Marine Corps bus with the slogan Battles Are Won Within.                                  Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019).

Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. Photo Purchased by Jeffery Battle on March 7, 2014.

The National Academy of Sciences Albert Einstein Museum’s bronze statue with manuscript papers in hand. Sculptor Robert Berks. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019).

The National Academy of Sciences Albert Einstein Museum’s plaque with Celestial Map in Washington, DC. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019).

The National Academy of Sciences Plaque in Washington, DC.  Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019).

The Daughters of the American Revolution’s Constitution Hall in Washington DC.  Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2019).

My Mother, Helen M. Battle, and I, in 1982 at a Christmas Celebration.

William Earl Bootsy Collins’ Recorded Birthday Gift Cameo.                                    Purchased in May of 2022 for Jeffery Battle.

Madrid, Spain, 1983, 22-year-old Jeffery Battle, featuring one of my Bass guitars.

Chapter 1

Aviation Inspiration and Family Detriment

I was born on May 28, 1962, in a small post-Slavery style farmhouse in Scotland Neck, North Carolina; a town small enough to not need traffic lights. The town of Scotland Neck was once known as the largest cotton producer in the country and the home of the Edwards Cotton Company since 1890. Now, my hometown—like many former farming and industrial towns in the South—has seen better days in the way of farming and industrial prosperity, but was doing average to good, for some, during the late to mid-1970s.

C:\Users\battlej2\Pictures\2019-08-22\051.JPG

A post-Slavery style farmhouse in Scotland Neck, North Carolina. Photographer: Jeffery Battle (2018).

The Little Red Crop-Duster Airplane of Inspiration and Family Detriment

My recollection of my early childhood experiences includes both moments of glee and times of despair. Although there was a lot of love to go around within my communities, there was also much despair. The photo of the post-Slavery style farmhouse is near and similar to the house in which I was born and lived from birth to 7 years of age, and again from 14 to 18 years of age. The house in which I was born had only 4 rooms in which, at times, large groups of family members resided. In 1962, the house that I was born in had no electricity, no indoor plumbing, and only one wood-burning stove that was used for cooking and heating. The toilet was external to the house and was known as the out-outhouse

I was just about 5 years of age when I recall standing on the front porch and in the yard of my home, fascinated by the little red crop-duster airplane that was going back and forth spaying some sort of poison on the crops in the fields, surrounding and very close to the house in which I was born. Later, I discovered the crop-duster airplane was spraying pesticides and insecticides. 

Pesticides and insecticides are poisons and they are used by farmers as a way of eliminating some of the weeds and insect pests that would harm or destroy their crops. To young children, the white-colored powdery pesticide and insecticide spray from the crop-duster airplane seemed like snow as it