NOAA Systems Engineer Named First Employee of Month John Hill, an electronics engineer at the Office of Marine and Aviation Operations' Aircraft Operations Center at MacDill Airforce Base in Florida, is NOAA's first Employee of the Month. With West Virginia roots, a way with horses, and a quiet upbeat approach, John is a terrific example of the best of NOAA. Nominated for outstanding technical accomplishment despite funding, time and personnel contraints, John has an excellent track record of focusing energy and expertise to make real contributions on multiple levels. At the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center, John has progressed rapidly from being a new hire (1996) to trainer, team-builder and lead engineer on NOAA's newest airborne meteorological platform. As the systems engineer on NOAA's G-IV high altitude jet aircraft, John spearheaded a complex effort to replace almost the entire computer hardware of the Meteorological Aircraft Data System. In midstream, and more than once, tight budgets forced John to reconfigure both scope and approach. He not only overcame the obstacles but developed a more rugged, maintainable configuration, with even more assets than originally contemplated. And he accomplished this in time for last year's hurricane season, when the G-IV played a vital role in providing data to National Hurricane Center forecasters and computer models. This year his work has already made a big difference, providing a critical new evaluation tool for the G-IV's meteorologist and flight crew to use in gauging flight safety.