Emmit A. Koelle, Jr.'s interest in aviation began at age five, when he built his first model airplane. By the age of sixteen, he had soloed in a Cessna 140, and in 1953 he had received his Single Engine Land (SEL) airplane private pilot's license. In 1957, he graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. Following that, he worked as a civil service employee at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) for three months, where he was a test engineer for experimental military helicopters.

While at Edwards AFB also in 1957 he entered active duty as an Air Force officer performing the same functions as his previous civil service work. In 1960, he was discharged from active duty with the United States Air Force and returned to the identical civil service work at Edwards. Boeing/Vertol in Philadelphia, Pa. then employed him as an Aero Engineer until 1962. "We got back to Texas as soon as we could..." where he again accepted a civil service job as an aerodynamicist at the U. S. Army maintenance facility in Corpus Christi.

In 1963, he and his family relocated to the Fort Worth area where he represented the Army's helicopter interest in the Bell OH-4 (later known as the model 206) certification, being performed by the Federal Aeronautics Administration (FAA). A year later, he transferred to the Army Representative Office at Bell Helicopter where he was Chief of Systems Engineering.

He retired from this job in 1988. Until his second retirement in 1999, he worked for Global Helicopter Technology as senior engineer. While at Global Helicopter Technology, he designed and oversaw the manufacture of helicopter components as well as overseeing their installation in airframes in the United States and abroad.

He currently resides in Bedford, Texas.