Ba Nguyen graduated from USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT) under a Vietnamese Military Assistance Program in 1971. He accumulated ~2,500 hours in the A-1, A-37 and F-5 aircraft during Close-Air Support missions, leaving Vietnam on the last day of the war, 29 April 1975. Ba joined the US Air Force Research Lab in 1987, and received a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Dayton in 1991. He has supported the F-16 Variable Stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft development, and served as Chief Engineer of Phase I Automatic Air Collision Avoidance System development. As Chief Engineer of AFRL’s Automated Aerial Refuelling program he is now AFRL’s Subject Matter Expert for related development and a senior engineer for autonomy technology development.