Bio

Kenny Watts, Madison, AL

In 1968, he was one of the original 9 members of the of the first ever FIT Rowing Team and the team captain and first alumni. As an original crew member, Kenny was a personal acquaintance of Dr. Jerome Keuper who was the team’s greatest fan. At FIT, he was the Vice President of the Student Government Association and an EE Lab Assistant for Dr. Walter Nunn (a fellow Marine) for whom the FIT Endowed Chair in Electromagnetics is dedicated.

With the Vietnam war in full swing in 1971 and with a low draft number, after graduating from FIT, Kenny joined the Marine Corps, was commissioned via the Officer Candidate School, and trained as an Airborne Electronic Countermeasures Officer (ECMO) flying missions in the EA-6A and RF-4B aircraft aboard the USS Midway and USS Coral Sea. In 1975, from the USS Coral Sea, Kenny flew the last Marine Corps fixed-wing aircraft out of Vietnam at the completion of the Saigon evacuation where he provided radar jamming from his EA-6A to protect the helicopters performing the evacuation.

Kenny then attended the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA where in 1977 he received a MSEE.  He then served as a flight test engineer for an aircraft C3 system and worked in-plant with the engineering team at Hughes Aircraft Company in Fullerton, CA. He left active duty in 1981 and continued to serve in the Marine Corps Reserve until 2001, rising to the rank of Colonel. His Marine Corps Reserve assignments included tours as a Forward Air Controller, Artillery Battery Commander, Battalion Intelligence Officer, Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) Intelligence Officer, Deputy Director of the Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, and Faculty Member at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College.

In his civilian career, Kenny worked for Raytheon Company in Huntsville, AL as a Senior Systems Engineer and Senior Business Development Manager.  Kenny received two business development awards from Raytheon for his leadership in fielding near-term threat response systems. The first award was for his role in the first 72 hours after the 911 terrorist attacks, for deploying Raytheon radars, C3 systems and missiles to the National Capital Region to create an air defense umbrella.  The second award was for his role in adapting the Raytheon shipborne Close-In Weapon System (CIWS) for land use in Iraq to detect and destroy incoming mortar and rocket weapons.

Kenny retired from Raytheon in 2013 and still works as a part time consultant for Huntsville aerospace-defense companies.  He is working with the FIT College of Engineering and Science to help pursue DoD, DoJ, and NASA research programs in Huntsville, AL.