Bland Burchett is an engineer with the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division. His 33 distinguished years serving our nation began as a reliability engineer and evolved into various responsibilities in weapons development and testing, where he has overseen diverse groups of scientists, engineers, and technicians. Bland Burchett has written or collaborated on technical papers relating to engineering and warfare and has a patent pending for a project named “Alternate Fuel for Fuel Air Explosive.” Recently he moved from weapons development to supporting warfighter training and currently leads a group that supports more than 36 combat readiness training ranges in the U.S. and around the world - a la Top Gun.

Bland was honored with the Dr. Charles C. Lauritsen Award for his leadership in the field of energetics and the Command Team Appreciation Award for Low Collateral Damage Bomb Project Leadership as well as “On the Spot” awards for project leadership. He has received Letters of Appreciation from Rear Admirals Dunaway and McKinney, Commanders at the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division, China Lake.

Bland has a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry. He was a member of the MCC football team that won the 1974 Wool Bowl and the 1975 NJCAA National Championship. He was honored as the Arizona Republic’s All-State Football First Team. Bland is a cancer survivor, and has been involved in community events such as Relay for Life. In his “free” time, he and his wife have logged more than 100,000 miles on their Harleys.