AFRL civilian advocate for determination, diversity

  • Published
  • By Minty Knighton
  • Team Eglin Public Affairs
EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. --  Lloyd Reshard grew up as a person of meager means but worked his way up to become the first and only African-American branch chief of the Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Division here.

As chief, he's managed a $150 million budget of one of the largest branches and was responsible for designing and implementing the first carriage design for the Small Diameter Bomb. In addition, he developed a system that produced model sketches from mathematical formulas, and made weapon communication technologies more efficient by integrating communication code.

It is far from what he thought he would accomplish growing up in rural Tallahassee, Fla., in the 1960's. He grew up an underprivileged child of a single-parent with no means to progress. His greatest influence growing up was his mom who was a maid and a nurse and his uncle, a farmer.

"Even though my mother pushed for education and my uncle taught me good work ethics, I came from the country and we didn't have a lot," he said. "Mom couldn't always be there, so we had to raise ourselves and many times we'd miss little things that made a difference, like grooming and speech."

It wasn't until around 6th grade when he began to progress in his life.

His English teacher recognized his potential and began mentoring him. His math teacher also took interest in his future.

"He put me in a class with super-smart students," said Reshard. "By high school, math was a breeze, because I had already learned it."

With greater confidence, a positive attitude, and a talent for conversing, Reshard networked with everyone he could.

"Whatever I wanted, I got it, because I would ask questions to anyone who would listen," said Reshard. "I would train anyway I could and I treated everyone with respect."

It was this attitude that led him to an engineering position with the government.

"I originally had a scholarship with IBM at Florida Agriculture and Mechanical University and was working part time to pay my way through school," said Reshard. "Then I met an AFRL recruiter who showed me how to get more money for college and gave me insight into greater opportunities."

When Reshard started working for AFRL in 1976, there was only one other African-American person in the entire munitions directorate. Reshard found it hard to make his mark among the other engineers, but his innovative ideas finally caught someone's ear.

"It wasn't even a part of my job, but I realized the directorate needed an automated answering service," said Reshard. "I met a lot of opposition, but where there's a will there's a way," said Reshard.

The answering service was adopted. It was Reshard's first step in being recognized as a notable AFRL engineer.

Reshard recalled he never went to one of his supervisors with an excuse.

"Excuses mean you're not a winner," he said. "I never reached a block I couldn't get through."

His inquisitive drive and his 'can do" attitude earned Reshard numerous awards and recognitions including the DoD Civilian Meritorious Service, AFRL's General Lester L. Lyles Award, National Science Foundation's Vision Award and the U.S. Black Engineer of the Year for Career Achievement 2009.

It's with his positive and determined attitude he promoted betterment in and out of his job, many times combining the two. One of his greatest accomplishments was minority recruiting, especially engineers. He's recruited more than 12 young college graduates by establishing a $2.5 million Historically Black Colleges and University Minority Institutions Technology program.

"He believed in everyone getting the same opportunities and he invested in us," said Shava Meadows, former recruit and general engineer for the Air Armament Directorate. "He moved us around making sure we worked in different areas of the lab to become as proficient as possible."

Reshard felt he just owed it to those who'd believed in him more than 35 years ago.

"If it wasn't for someone doing it for me, I wouldn't be where I am now."

It's not only Reshard's dedication, it's also his desire for change that drove his to advance.

"Many times, people don't want to step out of their comfort zone," said Reshard. "They won't make the time or have the patience to mentor, but considering the aging workforce, if we don't change that mentality we will end up losing a lot of expertise."

Reshard has been asked numerous times why he is a champion for young engineers. His answer is simple and always the same.

"Why not me," he said. "Why not you."