John A. Pitts received a B.A. in history from Northwestern University, a M.A. in modern European history from the University of Utah, and a Ph.D. in the history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a Josiah Macy Foundation Fellow.

After completing work on The Human Factor, Pitts joined the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) as an historian from 1982-1985. I n August 1985, he was granted a leave of absence from the NRL to accept a three-year appointment as Command Historian, V Corps, U.S. Army, in Europe.

Pitts is primarily an applied historian, who concentrates on analyzing operational problems and substantive issues of concern to managers and decision makers within the Defense R&D communities. Although he writes occasional articles and book reviews for professional journals and is currently completing a monograph history of underwater acoustics, the typical products of his research (analytical reports, background papers, and processed oral histories) are intended for internal use, rather than publication.

Pitts currently lives in Bad Homburg, West Germany, with his wife and three daughters.

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