Larry D. Bruce, PhD

Independent Researcher / Writer

I was born in Marshfield, Missouri, the hometown of one of my heroes, Edwin Hubble—the astronomer who discovered the expanding universe (we lived on his ranch for a time). When I was about ten, my family moved to Miami, Florida, where I lived until my second year of college. Thereafter I lived many years in Texas (Houston and Ft. Worth), Europe, and Southeast Asia (in the military) and then moved to Panama City, Florida, where I now reside.

ACADEMIC

EDUCATION

  • PhD: Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
      • Major: Biblical Backgrounds and Archaeology.  Minor: Old Testament. Languages: Hebrew, Greek, German, French, Ugaritic, and Latin
      • One year of advanced coursework at Baylor University and a semester at Southern Methodist University
      • Dissertation Topic: Archaeological evidence for the Israelite Exodus/Conquest in the 12th Century BC
      • Archaeological field training: Tel Batash (biblical Timnah, Israel) with Amihai Mazar, and Baruch Brandl with Leen Ritmeyer
    • MDiv: Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
    • Woodrow Wilson Fellow: Graduate studies in Philosophy, University of Kansas
    • BA, magna cum laude, Western Carolina University
  • PUBLICATIONS
    • “The Merenptah Stele” in the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society; several articles in Academia.edu; a number of articles in ResearchGate.net; many non-academic publications
  • INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER
    • 40 years researching the relationship between the biblical account of Israel’s origins and the archaeological and other extrabiblical evidence in the context of Egyptian dynastic history of the New Kingdom
  • OTHER
    • Undergraduate coursework at five other universities studying pre-med subjects
    • Admitted to two University of Texas medical schools; declined to attend
  • EMPLOYMENT / TEACHING
    • Adjunct professor (undergraduate/graduate courses in Bible, archaeology, hermeneutics) at:
      • Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
      • Baptist University of Florida
      • Gulf Coast State College
    • Twenty + years teaching seminars and Bible studies in church venues

AIRLINE EMPLOYMENT

INTERNATIONAL AIRLINE CAPTAIN

  •  WORLD AIRWAYS (retired)
    • 22 years conducting global flight operations to Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the Far East, the Pacific, and South America
      • Captain: rated in the DC10-30 and MD11
      • Check Captain (trained and evaluated captains and first officers in simulator and flight operations)
      • Test Pilot, engine-out ferry flight operations, new aircraft test flights, Jakarta (Indonesia) base manager, authored the two–volume DC10 Flight Crew Operations and Systems manuals—1,000 pages +; conducted ground school training; designed and conducted training programs
      • Authored the Inflight Reference Guide famously used by flight crews at World and other airlines and acknowledged by the FAA
      • Manager Flight Operations Technical

      AMERICAN AIRLINES (retired)

      • Designed/Developed American’s International Flight Training Program (at the Flight Academy in Ft. Worth, Texas, and remotely) while flying simultaneously with World Airways. A recognized authority on global flight operations
      • Authored multiple operations textbooks and handbooks used by American pilots—widely copied throughout the industry
    • OTHER
      • Data Engineer (Dresser Magcobar Industries): logged drilling strata on deep water offshore drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico
      • Staff Scientist (Weckerling Scientific Labs): Material analysis using Scanning Electron Microscopy, x-ray diffraction, and neutron activation (using the Texas A&M nuclear reactor)—during my doctoral studies.
      • Night Freight Pilot: operated from Dallas to the Mexican border to Canada and return to Dallas overnight, hauling nightly on-demand auto parts from Mexico to Canada in Lear Jets and Bombardier Challenger twin engine jets
      • Executive Search Consultant (“head hunter”) – self-employed with focus on finding engineering and scientific specialists for the oil and gas industry

MILITARY: USAF FIGHTER PILOT (captain)

  • F-102 all weather interceptor pilot, Hahn Airbase, Germany; five-minute alert in the air defense of western Europe. Additional duties included: Squadron Intelligence Officer, test pilot, instructor of aerial combat, flight commander
  • F-100 fighter pilot, Phan Rang Airbase, Vietnam. Flew 185 combat missions throughout South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
  • T-38 Advanced Flight Training Instructor, Moody Air Force Base, Georgia

Achievements:

      • Distinguished graduate from every military school attended (that offered this designation), including pilot training (first in my class, best pilot, most outstanding second lieutenant); and awarded a regular commission
      • Combat decorations: Silver Star, three Distinguished Flying Crosses for heroism and outstanding achievement, nine Air Medals, and the Air Force Commendation Medal for classified ground operations in Cambodia—among others

 PERSONAL

      • Interests include scuba diving (certified in the Red Sea), cave exploration, fishing, flying
      • Novelist (see Amazon: “L. D. Bruce, On a Darkling Plain”)
Captain Larry D. Bruce, Phan Rang AB, Vietnam Dec. 1970

F-100 preparing for combat mission. Captain Larry D. Bruce, Phan Rang AB, Vietnam, Dec 1970

The Novel, On a Darkling Plain by L. D. Bruce

On A Darkling Plain, a novel by L. D. Bruce