Lew Allen, Jr.

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General Lew Allen, Jr.

Lew Allen, Jr. (born September 30, 1925 in Miami , Florida - † January 4, 2010 in Potomac Falls , Virginia ) was an American general in the US Air Force , director of the National Security Agency (NSA), chief of staff of the Air Force and head of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology (CALTECH).

biography

Military training

Lew Allen Jr. grew up in Gainesville, Texas after his parents divorced and joined the US Air Force after finishing school. In 1946 he completed his military training at the US Military Academy in West Point , and was then pilot of the Boeing B-52 - Bombers in the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Carswell . He then completed postgraduate studies in nuclear physics at the University of Illinois and graduated in 1952 with a Master of Science degree . In 1954 he also earned a doctorate in physics .

He then began a career as a specialist in the military effects of nuclear weapons . In addition, he conducted studies of nuclear explosions at great heights and developed satellite and missile systems.

Director of the NSA and Project Shamrock

Lt. Gen. Lew Allen, Jr. (third from right) at a 1973 meeting of the Military Intelligence Board ( MIB )

On August 15, 1973, Lieutenant General Lew Allen Jr. was appointed director of the National Security Agency (NSA) by US President Richard Nixon, the US intelligence agency responsible for the worldwide surveillance and decryption of electronic communications .

During this time, the investigation of the publicly criticized telecommunications surveillance ( Project Shamrock ) of international calls by US citizens began. However, in hearings before the United States Congress , he said little about the agency's work. Before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ( House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ) of the US House of Representatives , he declared in August 1975 that “unwise revelations” could undermine US interests. Two months later he declared in October 1975 before the Intelligence Committee of the US Senate ( United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence ) under the leadership of the Democratic Senator Frank Church , that the agency actually 1967 to 1973, the telecommunications links of 1600 US nationals who were on a review list. This eavesdropping would have prevented "a major terrorist attack" according to Lieutenant General Allen . In addition, the embarkation of several large drug deliveries to the USA had been averted.

These revelations led to the establishment of a secret court to issue national telephone surveillance permits. At the same time, an ongoing debate began between those who consider the agency's techniques intrusive and unconstitutional and those who believe that the government's actions are necessary to maintain national security .

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff and Director of the NASA Laboratory

After retiring as director of the NSA on July 4, 1977, he was promoted to general and was initially Deputy Chief of Staff of the US Air Force ( Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force ).

Then General Allen was between July 1, 1978 and June 30, 1982 Chief of Staff of the Air Force and thus one of the most important military advisers to US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan . He was retired on June 30, 1982 .

This was followed on July 22, 1982 by his appointment as director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the laboratory responsible for the construction and control of satellites and space probes at NASA .

In this role he worked until December 31, 1990 and was responsible for NASA's unmanned space program during a period in which the development of space-related defense programs increasingly played a role. In the laboratory located in Pasadena he was in charge of the Galileo mission to the planet Jupiter in October 1989, with which the impact of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 on Jupiter could be observed. In addition to the exploration of the Planets Venus by the probe Magellan , the flybys of the planet made Uranus on January 24, 1986, Neptune on August 25 in 1989 by the space probe Voyager 2 .

In 1990 he began an investigation of NASA in a faulty mirror of 1.5 billion US dollars expensive Hubble Space Telescope , which started its service in May 1990, but produced only blurred images. In his report, published in November 1990, he concluded that a faulty measuring instrument used by the mirror's manufacturer, PerkinElmer , was to blame for the incorrect cut of the mirror. The cost to the US government was $ 25 million.

Awards

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of the Military Awards:

He was inducted into the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2007 for his services to NASA . In addition, the asteroid (4125) Lew Allen was named after him.

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