Gen. Bernard Schriever, 94, Air Force Missile Chief, Dies
NY Times
WASHINGTON, June 23 - Gen. Bernard A. Schriever, who oversaw the Air Force’s development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and other rockets that ushered in the space age and escalated the weapons race with the Soviet Union, died on Monday at his home in Washington. He was 94.
Gen. Bernard Schriever, a proponent of intercontinental ballistic missiles, oversaw development of the Atlas, Minuteman, Thor and Titan.
The cause was complications of pneumonia, said his wife, the singer Joni James.
General Schriever was the leading missile officer for the Air Force from the mid-1950’s until well into the 60’s.
He was named commander of the Air Force Western Development Division, a euphemistic code name for the top-secret I.C.B.M. development program that began in 1954. Then he headed the Ballistic Missile Division of the Air Research and Development Command and finally was chief of the Air Force Systems Command.
In what amounted to dual roles as general and industrialist, he oversaw research and development of the Atlas, Titan, Thor and Minuteman missiles as he shuttled from Air Force installations to contractors’ plants.
The I.C.B.M. program was an underpinning of American military policy at the height of the cold war with the Soviet Union, when closing the “missile gap” was a top priority.
The powerful missiles, feared for their potential to deliver nuclear weapons to targets thousands of miles away, also took on a peacetime role. Atlas rockets carried American astronauts into orbit in the Mercury program. The Titan was the workhorse of the Gemini space program.
Bernard Schriever (rhymes with beaver) so believed in missile development that, as a mere colonel in 1952, he dared to disagree with Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, the formidable commander of the Strategic Air Command. General LeMay championed the B-52 bomber as the best delivery vehicle for nuclear bombs. Colonel Schriever politely but firmly disagreed, witnesses said.
Although General LeMay remained a devotee of the B-52, the colonel had made his point. He also proved to be prescient about the space race.
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