Candidate for
Board Member; Vandenberg Village Community Services District

Tony Fox: Retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Turned Consultant

Anthony Wayne Fox was born in Tampa, Florida at Hillsborough Air Force Base in 1944. From this beginning as an Army Air Corps "brat," Tony continued in that status with his parents through a variety of his father's assignments in the United States, Germany and Japan until he graduated from Baylor University and was commissioned in the USAF in 1966. His first assignment was at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in 1967 in the procurement career field, and he remained mostly in the weapon system acquisition arena throughout his career. He obtained his Master of Arts degree from Central Michigan University in 1974 while assigned to the C-5A System Program Office at Wright-Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio. He also has an Associate of Science degree from Allan Hancock College. His last seven years in the Air Force were spent overseas in Greenland, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. He is a veteran of Operations Desert Shield/Desert Storm. His last military position was in joint service as Commander, Defense Contract Management Area Operations Ankara, which involved industrial plant oversight responsibility for the F-16 co-production program in Turkey. In 1992 LtCol Fox, as a result of a force draw down ordered by President Bush (41), retired early at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C. with nearly twenty-five years of honorable service. During that time, he was certified by the USAF at Senior Level III in contracting, quality assurance, and manufacturing, and he also received the Senior Missile Badge, and the Master Aircraft and Munitions Badge. His highest decoration is the Defense Meritorious Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster. At this point, Tony began his second career as a certified professional consultant, primarily in contract management, in the Washington, D.C. area. His last permanent position there was with Educational Services Institute of Arlington, Virginia, where he performed duties as a Contract Review Specialist for the Resolution Trust Corporation in the District of Columbia working cost recovery projects related to oversight of failed savings and loan companies. Upon the death of his father in 1995, Tony and his wife resigned their positions (hers with Citizens Bancorp), and relocated to California to be with his mother, who is now 89, to assist her with her personal affairs; and also to help with a critically ill father-in-law, who is now deceased. After arriving on the central coast, Tony continued in his post military career of consulting in contract management. Currently, both Tony and his wife are dedicated to Republican politics, are members of the Santa Barbara County Republican Central Committee, where he is a member from the Third Supervisorial District and past chairman, and they both are active in the Lincoln Club of Santa Barbara County and other republican organizations. Nominated by Brooks Firestone, Tony became the Santa Barbara County representative for the Bush for President Organization, and continues in that capacity today. As a new resident of the county, Tony, in the interest of citizenship and to better understand county government, served as a member of the county Grand Jury for the 1997-98 term. Further, Tony was twice Chairman of the California Central Coast Section 601 of the American Society for Quality, and is liaison to the regional director, since the section's dissolution. In addition, Lieutenant Colonel Fox is currently a National Director (second term) and past president of the Vandenberg Chapter of the National Contract Management Association. Tony also served as president (1997-98) and Second Vice President of the Santa Maria-Lompoc Aerospace Chapter of The Retired Officers Association (New name: Military Officers Association of America). A life member of TROA, Tony was very active as a past board member of CAL-TROA, where he served as a member of the budget committee, and also the Area III, Central Coast State Director for the council for the year 2000. Locally, Tony is a member of the Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce, and he is a board member and trustee of the Lompoc Pops Orchestra. He lives in Vandenberg Village with his wife of 34 years, Ann. They have one grown son, Erik-Anthony, who is married to the former Jennifer Shaw. Erik has a political science degree from Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana, and is in his final year of law school at Tomas Jefferson in San Diego, California.

September 15, 2002