John Keller retires as Military & Aerospace Electronics chief editor after serving the magazine for 36 years

NASHUA, N.H. – This is my last day as chief editor of Military & Aerospace Electronics; I retire at the end of today, after 45 years in the publishing business. It's been a great ride. I've been with Military & Aerospace Electronics for all but nine months of its existence, which began with the magazine's volume one, number one in January 1990. That's longer than any other human being, living or dead, so suffice it to say, this franchise represents the lion's share of my life's work. That's about 36 years worth on this magazine, give or take, and I've loved every minute of it.

I leave this franchise -- print magazine, website, e-newsletter, webinars, buyers guide -- in good hands, as I stand relieved by my colleague Jamie Whitney, who takes over as chief editor tomorrow.

My career as a military technology reporter started in June 1981 shortly after I graduated from college when I joined the staff of The Hanford Sentinel in Central California, where I covered Lemoore Naval Air Station and the Navy's Light Attack Wing-Pacific. They flew the A-7E Corsair II then; the base had just one F/A-18 Hornet -- an aircraft that eventually would take over as the Navy's primary jet fighter-bomber. At the time, that base even flew TA-4J Skyhawk light-attack bombers, with Attack Squadron 127, then one of the Pacific Fleet's adversary squadrons. The A-7s and A-4s are all gone now, as I end more than four decades of military writing.

Start in daily newspapers

Before Military & Aerospace Electronics, I was with the Leaf-Chronicle daily newspaper in Clarksville, Tenn., where I covered Fort Campbell and the 101st Airborne Division. I was the Pentagon reporter for Scripps League Newspapers in Washington, and then I moved from newspapers to the trade press in 1986 when I joined Pasha Publications in Arlington, Va., as editor of Advanced Military Computing and C3I Report. I joined Military & Aerospace Electronics in 1989 as managing editor, and helped put together the magazine's first prototype, which came out in September 1989.

I left the magazine briefly in 1991 to spend nine months as a reporter at Jane's Information Group, where I wrote for the Interavia Air Letter, Interavia magazine, Jane's Airport Review, Jane's Defence Weekly, and Aviation Ground Equipment Market. After a bloody layoff at Jane's in 1992, I came back to Military & Aerospace Electronics, where I've been ever since. I first was the magazine's Washington bureau chief, and in 1995 moved to Nashua, N.H., to take over as chief editor.

So many memories. When it comes to embedded computing, I remember when VME was new, and represented one of the first significant moves away from proprietary technology and into open-systems architectures. I saw that industry evolve from VME to VPX, and now to new standards like VNX+. When I started on this franchise, there wasn't any Internet to speak of. I witnessed the massive shift from print to online publication, saw the birth and development of webinars, podcasts, and electronic newsletters. Everyone writes on computers these days; when I first started out, we wrote on Royal manual typewriters, and a cut-and-paste involved scissors and rubber cement.

Ticket to ride

My reporting career has been a ticket to ride, of sorts. I had the chance to fly backseat in a TA-7C light-attack bomber, aboard a Navy P-3 Orion anti-submarine warfare plane, in a Navy CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, and got a catapult shot off an aircraft carrier aboard a Navy C-1 carrier onboard delivery aircraft. I spent several days at sea aboard the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea, and later aboard the Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered fast attack submarine USS Helena, where I documented some of the Navy's first uses of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) equipment in a combat environment.

So how much have we written in the 36 years of Military & Aerospace Electronics? It's hard to say, exactly, but ChatGPT estimates 8,000 to 15,000 print articles, and 10,000 to 30,000 online articles, with a grand total of 20,000 to 40,000 stories since its inception. I'm probably responsible for writing perhaps 10,000 of those stories, give or take. If that turns out to be my professional legacy, I'll take it.

I'll be gone tomorrow from Military & Aerospace Electronics, but I'll still be around, redefining identity and finding new purpose. The email address I carry into retirement is [email protected]. Thank you everyone for sharing this amazing ride.