Commander's childhood dream comes true at Arnold Published July 23, 2009 By Janae' Daniels AEDC/PA Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn. -- New Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) Commander Col. Michael Panarisi's dream job as a child was to be an engineer. Being accepted to MIT was the beginning of that dream until the colonel realized he would not be able to afford the tuition. However, a childhood mentor advised him to think outside the box and think of bigger opportunities. "At the end of that conversation," the colonel recollected, "an airplane literally flew overhead and he said, 'Mike, you can do anything.' He [the mentor] pointed to the sky and said 'but there, the possibilities are endless.'" Thinking the sky really was the limit, Colonel Panarisi changed his focus and pursued an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy with a new passion - flying. "I was always fascinated with flying, and I literally caught the bug watching the Six Million Dollar Man," he explained. "My dad started flying private airplanes when I was little, but I never got the opportunity to fly with him. The Air Force offered the opportunity to fulfill a childhood dream of flying." According to the colonel, in the early 1980s all of the high-tech work was being done in the Air Force so the Air Force Academy was the perfect solution. He could still pursue his love of engineering and get the opportunity to fly. Ironically, Colonel Panarisi had never flown in an airplane until he was on his way to the Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. "I remember this like it was yesterday - I'm sitting in the airplane, the crew cranked the motors, pushed back and taxied out - now keep in mind this is 1982, so this is a big old four-engine commercial airplane," he explained. "The pilot put the throttles up, released the brakes, and I remember thinking to myself, 'Boy, I hope this is fun because I am about to go do this for a living.' When the plane finally lifted off I thought, 'Wow, this is great.'" From that point on, Colonel Panarisi knew he was on the right road to a rewarding and successful career. When challenged, the colonel can't pinpoint an exact career highlight that he is most proud of. Instead, he focuses on what's most important to him - his family. "My career is a little unique, in that what sticks out the most is being asked to do slightly unusual jobs and just doing the best I could," he explained. "There are a lot of achievements along the way that I suppose many would be proud of, but in the end, my pride came in being the guy they singled out to tackle a problem, and I stepped up and did it. I'm very satisfied in that perspective, knowing that they were relying on me, and I was willing and able to get the job done. "Moments in my career that stand out are not the combat missions, the training or actually flying the airplane - the points of my career that are truly special...being on deployment and that leading to meeting my wife, then some years later the birth of our son and then a couple years after that the birth of our daughter. To me, the special family moments mingled with the military career are really the highlights - the family moments that kind of remind me why we have this job." After the change of command ceremony, Colonel Panarisi toured AEDC facilities for the first time and get that all important first impression. "I expected, from talking with people, that there was an army of brilliant people working here, and that's obvious," he said. "To me that is the big first impression - it's gorgeous, it's lush and the people here are very excited about the job they are doing. They love the mission, they are passionate about what they do, and they are basically living my childhood dream. They are the engineers and developers of the next generation of technology that I always wanted to be." The colonel said he had to read up about AEDC before assuming command, but admitted reading about it doesn't compare to seeing the facilities first hand. "The stories totally underestimate what we have here," he explained. "But, when you go see it for real, it's really impressive. I had seen photos of the 16-foot supersonic wind tunnel, but you can't get an appreciation for it until you're actually standing in there." He compared himself to a kid in a candy store as they went into every facility. "They took me to every facility, explained to me what it did and they used all kinds of technical terms. I was just eating that up," he said with a smile. "It was a fantastic day to go around the base and see the things I had read about and see some of the history." He said the tour also gave him a snapshot of what AEDC has to focus on going forward. "The team has done an amazing job of keeping facilities available on clearly a tight budget," he observed. "In the days ahead, we are going to have to work on how we maintain these capabilities in what's going to become an even more demanding fiscal environment." Being only two weeks into the job, Colonel Panarisi has not set any specific goals yet, but understands the need for keeping Gen. "Hap" Arnold's vision, 'an Air Force second to none,' intact. "Hap Arnold had the foresight to realize that being ahead of everybody in technology development was the key to success in airpower. All airpower is developed on the ground first," he explained. "This is where it all begins. Every capability that we put together we start at ground test. My biggest goal is to provide the environment for that incredible pool of talent to flourish. All of the great work done is done by the brilliant people who work here." With his years of combat experience, the colonel holds a special understanding for the need of ground testing. "I kind of have a special connection to testing things before they are used because I ejected from a plane about 15 years ago," he explained. "Knowing that your ejection system is ready, will work when you need it, has the capability to get you out of a very bad situation and live to tell about it, gives me that special connection to test, because all that had to be proven before I pulled the handles." One of Colonel Panarisi's leadership philosophies is 'take care of the people and the people will take care of the mission.' One way for him to initiate that philosophy is to get to know the people and see where their concerns and issues lie. "Initially, the real challenge is to get to know the people and find out where their concerns and challenges are. My job is to find ways to overcome those challenges," he explained. "I don't want them worrying things that aren't solving technical problems in the mission." Colonel Panarisi also sees the need to keep up the technical excellence initiative re-energized by his predecessor. "If anything, we have to either sustain or accelerate Art's efforts at that," he commented. "We are not going to have the money to build things for the sake of building them, so we have to build people's minds instead. When the opportunity comes, or a new problem arises, we need them are armed intellectually to tackle it. It will take a lot to get them the equipment and resources, but our minimum seed corn is investing in their minds." One of the biggest challenges the colonel sees as being AEDC commander is being able to divide time and know where to focus, not letting the crisis of the day get in the way of preparing for the future. "If there's an organization that needs to focus on the future, this is it," he stated. "It's the future that this place is building for - we're not testing today's capabilities, we're testing and developing tomorrow's or the day after tomorrow's airplanes, components of airplanes or space components. "Being able to look forward, predict what the needs are going to be, and provisioning for those needs so that when the need arises, we're ready...that's the biggest challenge. We can't be reactive here. If we are, we are already too late."