Before entering academia at Purdue University, Professor Strickland accumulated over 41 years of Military and Airline Flight experience. Currently a 31-year veteran airline pilot for American Airlines, he flies presently as an Airline Transport Pilot with turbine jet type ratings in the B-787, B-777, B-767, B-757, B-737, FK-100, with flight experience as Captain and First Officer in the United States/Canada/Mexico, various international locations in China, Japan, Australia, South America, India, Europe, and Africa as well as recent operational overwater flight experience in POLAR, PACOTS, NOPAC, WATRS, or NATS airspace.

Retiring as a U.S. Army Joint Qualified Officer (JQO) at the rank of Colonel (O-6), Professor Strickland's 34-year military career spanned the areas of flight, aviation safety management, mission planning and operations, space/satellite integration, and military intelligence service. He has held multiple commands, with various leadership and supervisory staff positions in several countries worldwide. His capstone military assignment was as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Plans & Training, responsible for developing and managing training concepts, policies, and requirements while continuing to direct current and future operations for an organization with 6,000 personnel and a multi-million dollar budget. Professor Strickland is a United States Air Force's National Security Space Institute and Air War College graduate.

His previous teaching experience has been as a military instructor pilot, a graduate-level military academic instructor (Command and General Staff College), also as adjunct faculty at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and Austin Peay State University.

Courses taught at Purdue:

AT574 - Exploratory Studies in Aviation Human Factors

AT487 - Large Transport Category Jet Aircraft Simulation Laboratory

AT416 - Airline Indoctrination