Mr. Cutrer is a retired Coast Guard captain (O-6), with over 31 years of service. During his military career, he gained experience as an enlisted aircraft mechanic, a commissioned officer, a fixed-wing pilot, and an aviation maintenance officer. His final assignment in the Coast Guard was as the Commanding Officer of the Aviation Technical Training Center where the service trains all of its aircraft mechanics and technicians. (Some of the scenes in the recent Disney movie “The Guardian” were filmed at his command).

Earning his "wings of gold" in March of 1981, and has accumulated over 5,200 hours flying in fixed-wing aircraft, including the Grumman HU-16E Albatross, the Convair HC-131A Samaritan, and the Dassault HU-25A Falcon. He has earned an FAA Airline Transport Pilot certificate and holds an FAA Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic certificate.

From 2002 to 2006, Mr. Cutrer has served as an Adjunct Instructor for Embry-Riddle Extended Campus, teaching graduate and undergraduate courses (both in the classroom and on-line) in aviation safety and aviation management. During this time, he also served as the Center Faculty Chair for the newly opened Extended Campus Center in Elizabeth City, NC. Since the fall of 2006, he has worked as a full-time professor in the Applied Aviation Sciences Department at the main campus in Daytona Beach, teaching courses in aviation safety science and homeland security.

His academic credentials include a Bachelor's Degree from the University of the State of New York in 1993, and graduation with high honors in 2001 from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, with a Master's Degree in Aviation Management/Safety. Mr. Cutrer is currently beginning the dissertation phase for a Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration (specialization in Homeland Security) with Northcentral University in Prescott, AZ.

A native of Louisiana, Mr. Cutrer is married, with two teenaged daughters, and is into horses (currently owns four), making music, computers, reading and writing fiction, and his lovely bride of ten years, Valerie.