During his Army deployment at Joint Air Base Balad, located 40 miles from Baghdad, Iraq, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) emergency operations specialist Theodore Lee, right, served as an air traffic controller for the busy airfield. During its peak years, the airport directed aircraft for 28,000 military troops and more than 8,000 civilian contractors and employees, along with politicians, authorities, officials and celebrities. His interests in air safety continued with his invention,“ Predicting the Future Magnetic Alignment of a Runway,” for which he received a U.S. Patent in September 2022.