and the X-31A aircraft. Colonel Loria was the Naval Test Wing Atlantic's test pilot of the year in 1995. In 1996 he was the runner up for the Society of Experimental Test Pilot's coveted Iven C. Kinchloe Award for the test pilot of the year world-wide. After returning to the Marine Corps from NASA, he served as the Inspector General for the 1st Marine Air Wing, Okinawa, Japan and served as the Director of Operations (J3) for Cheyenne Mountain Complex, NORAD before retiring from military service on December 1, 2008. He has 3,079 hours of flight time and has flown 32 different aircraft. NASA career Loria's NASA experience includes assignment as test pilot and Project Officer for the Department of the Navy on the X-31 Program at the NASA Dryden Flight Research Facility, Edwards Air Force Base, California, from July 1994 to June 1995. He was also a test pilot on Dryden's F/A-18 High Alpha Research Vehicle or "HARV" during March 1995, conducting spin testing and the first successful excitation of the Hornet Falling Leaf out of control mode during flight test. Lead Department of the Navy test pilot on the NASA/U.S. Navy/Industry Aircraft Control Power Working Group. Selected by NASA in April 1996 as an Astronaut Candidate, Loria reported to the Johnson Space Center in August 1996. Having completed two years of training and evaluation, he was qualified for flight assignment as a shuttle pilot. Loria was initially assigned technical duties in the Astronaut Office as an Ascent and Entry CAPCOM. Loria served as an Ascent/Entry Capcom for Space Shuttle missions STS-102 (Mar. 2001), STS-106 (Sept. 2000), STS-97 (Dec. 2000), STS-102 (Mar 2001), STS-104 (June 2001), STS-105 (June 2001). Additionally, he served as an International Space Station (ISS) CAPCOM for Space Station Expedition III in the spring of 2001. Assigned as pilot on STS-113, Loria was medically grounded after he experienced two herniated discs in his lower back during the summer of 2002. From September 2002 through July 2003 he served as the Chief of Flight Test for the Orbital Space Plane Program. Selected by the NASA Headquarters Executive Development Education panel, was the recipient of the coveted NASA Fellowship to the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. While at Harvard, Loria was selected as a Harvard University Non-Resident Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs (a policy institute or think tank) for 2003-04 where he worked