Rockwood resident Greg Paulus is a Top Gun. He earned that distinction flying F4 fighters for the Air Force. In fact, he did it twice. He was operational in five different aircraft, a rarity itself. After serving his country, he found a way to serve people with disabilities. He continues to serve his community as a member of the Oak Ridge Site Specific Advisory Board (ORSSAB), a volunteer citizens’ panel that provides advice and recommendations to the U.S. Department of Energy on its environmental management of the Oak Ridge Reservation.                               .

Greg grew up in Milwaukee, Wis., and attended Marquette University earning a bachelor of science in mechanical engineering.

He joined the Air Force, went to flight school, and was sent to Vietnam as a forward air controller flying OV-10s. After completing his one-year tour in Southeast Asia, he returned to the states and did base facilities maintenance. He married and started his family and the Air Force asked if he wanted to be a fighter pilot. “That’s why I joined in the first place,” said Greg, “so I flew F4s in Europe from 1979-81.”

Then the Air Force asked him to go into procurements, so he worked with Boeing in Philadelphia learning how to determine the costs involved in building aircraft. “In the course of a year I developed a program that saved Boeing about $20 million a year. They thought that was pretty neat.”

Boeing wanted to hire him, but the Air Force still wanted him to do aircraft procurement, and it provided him an opportunity to get an MBA at Central Michigan University.

But it wasn’t long before the Air Force asked him again to climb into the cockpit to test fly refurbished fighters. “Finally after 20 years in the service and four children ages 3, 4, 7, and 8, who were all born in different parts of the world, it was time to be a dad.”

So Greg packed up his family and moved to Spokane, Wash., where he bought a bankrupt business that sold farm machinery, custom pontoon boats, and snowmobile trailers.

“The second day on the job a guy drives up pulling a pontoon boat. I was wondering how I was going to tell him that I bought the company assets but not the liabilities, and we’re not responsible for any warranties provided by the previous owner,” said Greg. “Then the guy rolls into my office in a wheelchair. He said the previous owner built a pontoon boat so he could board it in his wheelchair, but it still needed some modifications and he asked if we could make those modifications. That’s how I got into the business of helping people with disabilities.

“You can’t appreciate what frustrates people with disabilities because you’re not in that environment. But if you listen and talk to them you can help with those frustrations,” said Greg. “So we did a lot of things with our products to modify them for people with disabilities.”

Eventually Greg’s Metalite Industries received a grant from the Department of Education to do additional research and development and won a national small business award for his work. “We had a really good time doing that. It was a lot of fun.”

Greg was able to apply his government contracting and procurement experience to seek and conduct work for the government. “I was blessed and fortunate to develop some unique products for the government.
“When you develop a reputation for being able to do strange things they send you strange things for you to do.”

When the fourth child graduated college, Greg and wife, Sarah, decided it was time to retire. He and his family had been through East Tennessee before and they liked the area very much. Greg and Sarah bought a lot on Watts Bar Lake before retirement and moved to the area in 2008.

Soon after building their house he saw an ad in the local newspaper about ORSSAB, learned more about it on the board’s website, and made an application. “With the house finished I needed something to do. I thought this would be a good project and I was interested in the history of what happened here.”

It’s been a good fit for both Greg and the board. He currently chairs the Budget & Process Committee and is an active participant at board meetings.

ORSSAB meets the second Wednesday of each month at 6 p.m. at the DOE Information Center in the Office of Science and Technical Information, 1 Science.gov Way on the east side of Oak Ridge, fronting the 100 block of Oak Ridge Turnpike. Additional information about the board is available on the internet at www.energy.gov/orssab or by calling (865) 241-4583 or 241-4584.