The Faces of Technology

Troy Neal
On his seventh birthday in Springfield, Ohio, Troy Neal, now a manufacturing engineer, watched Neil Armstrong step onto the Moon. "I told myself then that if we African-Americans are going into space, I want to be one of them," he says. So far Neal hasn't made it into space, but he does have an important job at Boeing Integrated Defense Systems in St. Louis. He is responsible for developing and implementing the system development and demonstration manufacturing plan for the state-of-the-art EA-18G Airborne Electronic Attack aircraft. "It feels great knowing that you are trusted by your employer to get the job done," he says.