Col. Joseph Edward Boyett, Jr.

Honoring our Heroes

Martha Poole Simmons | Jul 01, 2020 in the Alabama Gazette

Col. Joseph Edward Boyett, Jr.: 84

Col. Joseph E. Boyett Jr. served 25 years in the United States Air Force in military logistics. As an operations research scientist, he created models to understand cause and effect relationships between support systems and weapon systems and to discover ways to improve combat capability. His studies led to changes in support systems that were confirmed by improvements in cost, schedule and performance. He received the following medals: Legion of Merit, Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal and Commendation Medal.

Boyett was born August 31, 1935, in Nashville, GA to Joseph Edward Boyett Sr. and Susie Mae Folsom-Boyett. He was reared near Lakeland, GA and graduated from Lanier County High School in 1953. Boyett graduated from the University of Georgia with a B.S. Degree in Forestry, which is now Environmental Science, and worked for the Georgia Department of Forestry before entering the U. S. Air Force. Although he had dreamed of flying since 1941 as a farm boy near Moody Air Force Base (AFB) GA, he was not physically qualified and instead began work in military logistics, including maintenance, supply, transportation, procurement, and planning.

Boyett’s service began when he completed training at Francis E. Warren AFB in WY, followed by deployment to Kadena Air Base Okinawa for three and one-half years. This was followed by assignment to George AFB in CA for three years where he was the Transportation Squadron Commander. He completed a Master’s Degree in Finance at the University of Colorado and was then reassigned to the Military Airlift Command Headquarters at Scott AFB in IL. Boyett demonstrated an ability to solve logistic problems that led to significant improvements in mission performance. In 1968, Boyett was deployed for one year to Phan Rang AB, Vietnam, which was attacked during Tet II, and several aircraft were destroyed. He returned to the University of Colorado where he earned a Ph.D. in Operations Research in 1972. His dissertation was on scheduling theoretical concepts incorporated today in Artificial Intelligence. He also completed doctoral courses in economics and finance. Boyett served as professor in the School of Systems and Logistics at Wright-Paterson AFB in OH, 1972-1976. Boyett was then assigned to the Pentagon but located at Gunter AFB in AL, where he created the research core of the new Air Force Logistics Management Center. The new agency was assigned personnel with little or no research experience to discover new and evolving technology to improve Air Force logistics. In 1981, he was reassigned to the Air War College as Director of Military Research where he retired that same year.

His research led to government use of “Performance Based Management,” lifetime warranted hand tools, air cargo planning systems, earned value management for software projects, and other improvements in military logistics. He was an advocate of integrating theories of “reliability, maintainability, inventory, and scheduling” with “general systems” into a unified military logistics model. Boyett was active in the Military Operations Research Society and other research groups.

Boyett continued teaching at two Alabama universities. First, he served as a professor of Industrial Operations Management in the School of Business of Auburn University’s main campus followed by working as Dean of Computer & Information, Science, and Mathematics at Troy University, Montgomery, AL. He then became an independent IT and Logistics Consultant 1997-2012. Since then, he has written on artificial intelligence and its opportunities in military logistics. Today, Boyett enjoys reading philosophy and studying genetics, especially DNA, within the Boyett and Folsom families.

He and his first wife, Faye Joyce Stone, were together 47 years before she passed away; they had three children and four grandchildren. He and his second wife, Carol Ann Pressley, were together 10 years before she passed away.

Boyett reflects upon his service in the military saying, “It meant everything to me. While working out in the gym at Maxwell AFB, I talk to many people, from Pearl Harbor survivors to newbies. I tell them they are going to miss their comrades when they retire, especially working with people who understand and practice ‘ethics and integrity’.”

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