Photo By Ryan Smith | Mary Feldman receives her 45-year length-of-service certificate from Dan Carreño,...... read more read more
A sophisticated missile is useless without the maintenance manual that shows how to service it, the spare parts to keep it operational, and the trained personnel who know how to load it onto an aircraft.
For 45 years, Mary Feldman has worked behind the scenes serving the Navy first in uniform and now as a civilian, ensuring the fleet receives essential logistics support to back up its weapons.
"I want to give warfighters the tools to do their job and come home," Feldman said. "If they don't have the logistics support, they can't do their job. That's what keeps the fleet going."
Feldman serves as a logistics management specialist in the Weapons Logistics Integration Division. She coordinates support that turns weapons from lab ideas into systems ready for combat. It is detailed, behind-the-scenes work that most people never see but every warfighter depends on.
Her journey to that role began more than four decades ago with a Navy uniform, a typewriter and a determination to do more.
Feldman joined the U.S. Navy in 1971 and served three years on active duty in aviation maintenance administration. She learned the basics of aircraft maintenance and the importance of accurate records, skills that later shaped her logistics career. She continued her service in the Navy Reserve for more than two decades and retired in 1996.
When she moved to Ridgecrest in the 1980s with her husband, who was serving in the military, she started at China Lake as a civilian typist.
Feldman already held a bachelor’s degree, but the opportunities for women at that time remained limited. Most worked in clerical roles or entered as Junior Professionals with engineering degrees. Neither path captured what she wanted to accomplish.
"It was a challenging time for women," Feldman said. "I had my degree and I wanted to expand and do more than just type."
That determination caught the attention of others at China Lake who saw her potential.
One of them was Eddie Fischer, a financial business specialist on the aerial targets program, who became Feldman’s mentor. Fischer taught her budgeting, the basics of contracts management, and to be open to new challenges.
"That alone was a good starting point for me when I moved over into logistics," Feldman said.
Feldman’s drive to grow professionally didn’t stop there.
While continuing her full-time work at China Lake, she pursued a Master of Public Administration, taking evening classes to expand her understanding of management and leadership. The experience strengthened her ability to handle complex logistics. It also prepared her for the bigger challenges that lay ahead.
Years later, Feldman realized she had been passing along the same lessons to interns and new hires, just as Fischer once did for her. Fischer passed away several years ago, but her legacy lives on in Feldman’s approach to mentorship.
The guidance she received stayed with her as she took on larger challenges and began shaping the logistics behind the Navy’s most advanced weapons.
Feldman’s career spans bombs, fuzes, and missile systems, but her favorite assignment was the AIM-9X Sidewinder missile program.
"I pretty much had open range to do what needed to be done to make sure that system had all the logistics support it needed," Feldman said.
On the Sidewinder program, Feldman led logistics efforts from China Lake in support of the assistant program manager for logistics at Naval Air Systems Command. Rather than wait for direction, she identified what the program needed and pushed the work forward.
"I didn’t let that stop me," Feldman said. "I said, ‘This is what needs to be done,’ and the APML and China Lake project leaders listened."
After three years on the Sidewinder program, Feldman sought new challenges. She relocated to NAVAIR headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, to support the Harpoon foreign military sales program, later moving to Patuxent River, Maryland, to provide logistics support for the monitors in the F/A-18 aircraft.
In 2007, Feldman returned to China Lake after twelve years at NAVAIR. She now supports the ALE-47 programmer upgrade program, which modernizes the aircraft countermeasure system that protects Navy and Marine Corps pilots from radar-guided threats.
Feldman’s work ensures that when those aircraft deploy, they have the manuals, spare parts, and trained personnel needed to keep the system mission ready. She also focuses on preparing the next generation of logisticians to continue that mission.
John Latimer, deputy assistant program manager for logistics for the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile at NAWCWD, has worked with Feldman for several years. He describes her as a wealth of knowledge and a dedicated mentor.
"Mary was instrumental in creating a supply support working group that built a training track to develop future supply support experts here at NAWCWD China Lake," Latimer said. "Her effort will have a lasting impact on the workforce and strengthen the Sustainment Group’s role within the NAVAIR Weapons Center of Excellence."
Cindy Chung, a logistics management specialist, credits Feldman with shaping her career.
"When I first met Ms. Feldman as an intern, I had very little understanding of logistics," Chung said. "Her mentorship helped me identify the logistics element I wanted to focus on and deepen my knowledge in. She guided me in setting clear goals and inspired me to aspire to become a subject matter expert like her one day."
Their stories reflect a pattern Feldman has repeated throughout her career, teaching others how to turn logistics into impact.
"If someone stays in one program too long, they'll only know what that single program teaches them," Feldman said. "They need to be open to new challenges and learn as much as they can from different programs."
At 45 years of service, Feldman shows no signs of slowing down. She plans to continue working as long as her health allows.
"I like my job, and the years have gone by faster than I realized," Feldman said. "I enjoy the work, the people, and being part of this base."
For Feldman, success is not measured in awards or recognition. It is found in technical manuals, parts that reach carrier decks, and the maintenance tasks that keep aircraft ready for missions.
She takes pride in knowing that warfighters can count on their weapons systems.
"Without logistics support, the fleet can’t fight," Feldman said. "Warfighters need the right tools, parts, and information to do their job, and I make sure they have them."
| Date Taken: | 11.19.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 11.19.2025 15:04 |
| Story ID: | 551798 |
| Location: | CHINA LAKE, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Hometown: | RIDGECREST, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 12 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Mary Feldman: 45 years of keeping the fleet mission ready, by Michael Smith, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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