Lance J Bollinger

Lance J. Bollinger was born Wednesday, March 16, 1949 in Elwood, Indiana to Joseph Carl Bollinger and Charlene (Perry) Bollinger. Lance graduated from Wendell L. Wilkie High School in 1967, and attended Purdue University from 1967 to 1968. In 1968 Lance moved to Americus, Georgia. In May of 1969 he joined the US Army (Service Number RA12793352) and served until November of 1971. During his service he attended basic training in Fort Benning, Georgia from May to July of his first year, and attended advanced training in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey from July of that same year to August of 1970. From August of 1970 to February of 1971, Lance deployed to the Republic of Vietnam, near Da Nang, as part of the 633 Combat Support. That same year, from February 1971 to November 1971, he was a member of the 165th Combat Aviation Group near Long Binh in Vietnam. Lance separated from the Army in November, 1971, at Fort Dix, New Jersey as an E-5 or Specialist 5. He then went on to pursue a Bachelor of Science at Purdue University from 1972 to 1975 in environmental science. On Saturday, May 24 of 1975, Lance married Janice Ione Wait at Lafayette, Indiana, and on October 1 of that year, their daughter Heather was born. Lance continued on at Purdue University, receiving a Master of Science in Health Physics from 1976 to 1979. In May of his last year at Purdue University, he joined the US Air Force and served until December of 1997. During his time serving with the Air Force, he spent 1979 to 1981 as a radiation safety officer at Brooks Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Thursday, February 5, 1981 their son Christopher (Chris) was born. That same year until 1985, Lance joined the USAF Surgeon General's staff, regulating all radioactive material use in the Air Force from nuclear medicine/therapy operations to blade inspection systems on helicopters. He transitioned in 1985 to an instructor role at the Interservice Nuclear Weapons School on Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico and taught nuclear weapon accident response until 1988. From 1988 to 1992 he was the Directorate of Nuclear Surety at Kirtland, and oversaw the space launch of radioactive material and reactor operations, simultaneously serving on the Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel (INSRP) to provide independent safety analysis for NASA's Galileo and Ulysses spacecraft. He served on the contingency launch support for both missions. In 1992, until 1995, Lance worked at the Air Force Inspection and Safety Center at Kirtland, performing compliance inspections on all radioactive material use in the Air Force. Following that he was involved in the oversight of health physics and bio-environmental consulting to Air Force operations worldwide from 1995 to 1997 until Monday, December 1, 1997 when he retired from the Air Force as a Lieutenant Colonel. After his retirement Lance joined Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a health physicist with the Radiation Protection Department, from 1988 to 2016, where he provided radiological support to a variety of research and operational programs. Then, in July of 2016, Lance Bollinger retired completely.