Laird is a civilian aeronautical engineer. When the Cylon Attack began, he went to the battlestar Pegasus. He then became the ships Flight-Deck Chief. when he came aboard Galactica, he met his counterpart Chief Tyrol. Upon looking on the Blackbird he was both appalled and impressed by Tyrol's new stealth fighter, especially be because he the designed the old DDG-62 engines, the blackbids engines. (Pegasus)
Notes
Ron D. Moore said in his podcast that he was tempted to give Laird a Scottish accent as a tribute to James Doohan, who played Montgomery Scott on Star Trek, as Doohan died around the time that the episode "Pegasus" was filming. Ultimately, he reluctantly decided not to.