General Lew Allen Jr.
1/30/2004 - 1970-1980 -- Lew Allen Jr.'s appointment as Air Force chief of staff was entirely unexpected because he had followed an unusual career path: he never had an overseas or a combat assignment, and most of his jobs were in highly specialized activities rather than in the basic line of the Air Force. Characteristically, Allen looked forward to the challenge.
Throughout his tenure Allen supported improvements that would increase the national combat capability, including survivability of strategic forces, enhanced combat readiness and sustainability of general-purpose forces, and expanded airlift capacity. Essential to these goals was having adequate numbers of experienced, motivated people to staff and maintain those weapon systems.
Among the dominant issues Allen dealt with during his first two years as chief were the attitude, morale, and discipline of Air Force personnel. It was the era of the "hollow force" Air Force, when gross under funding across the range of USAF activities -- from operations and maintenance to morale, welfare, and recreation -- caused adversities that reduced morale of the entire Air Force. Working with his commanders, Allen was able to secure additional funding to increase flying hours, and to turn around the pilot retention issue that resulted from the poor morale climate.
He was born in September 1925, in Miami, Fla., and graduated from high school in Gainesville, Texas. Allen entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., the following year and graduated in 1946 with a bachelor of science degree and a commission as a second lieutenant. During his West Point summers, he took primary flying training at Chickasha, Okla., where he flew the PT-17 and the Stearman, and completed advanced training at Stewart Field. He was awarded pilot's wings at graduation from West Point.
When he completed multi-engine flight training in November 1946, Allen was assigned to the 7th Bombardment Group at Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, where he flew B-29s and B-36s and served in various positions related to nuclear weaponry. He was among the first class of qualified nuclear weaponeers in the Air Force. Allen attended the Air Tactical Course at Tyndall AFB, Fla., and returned to Carswell as an instructor and assistant special weapons officer for the 7th Bombardment Wing. In his four years at SAC, he witnessed its astounding dramatic change under the leadership of Gen. Curtis E. LeMay.
In September 1950 he entered the University of Illinois for graduate training in nuclear physics, culminating in his doctorate degree in physics. Allen, then a captain, was assigned to the Atomic Energy Commission's Scientific Laboratory at Los Alamos, N.M., as a physicist in the test division. At this assignment he conducted experiments in several of the nuclear test series at Bikini and in Nevada. He was given an unusual degree of responsibility and independence and actually was one of the last military officers assigned to the laboratories strictly as a scientist. While at Los Alamos he gained a reputation for competence in a multidisciplinary field and was involved in testing the vulnerability of nuclear weapons to other nuclear weapons.
From June 1957 to December 1961 Allen was stationed at Kirtland AFB, N.M., as a science adviser to the physics division of the Air Force Special Weapons Center. He focused his attention on the military effects of high-altitude nuclear explosions and participated in several weapons test series. He was the scientific director of a major experiment that used high-altitude rockets to measure the characteristics of electrons trapped in the geomagnetic field after an exoatmospheric nuclear burst.
His tours at Los Alamos and Kirtland placed Allen in a working relationship with a number of prominent people in the nuclear weapons community. Among them was Harold Brown, the director of the Livermore Laboratory, the counterpart to Los Alamos. Brown became the director of defense research and engineering in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and subsequently asked Allen to join his office. Allen was assigned to the defense space technology office until 1965.
From 1965 to 1973 Allen was assigned to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, initially in Los Angeles as deputy director for advanced plans in the directorate of special projects. He moved to the Pentagon in June 1968 as deputy director of space systems and became director 12 months later. Allen returned to Los Angeles as assistant to the director of special projects and became director of special projects, with additional duty as deputy commander for satellite programs. He witnessed the demise of the Dyna-Soar program and became involved with the Manned Orbital Laboratory program. He also participated in the Blue Gemini program, devising experiments for a version of the space vehicle that lacked a laboratory.
For a short time Allen was the director of the National Security Agency and chief of central security service at Fort George G. Meade, Md.
In August 1977 Allen was named commander of Air Force Systems Command. Given his background in research and development, that assignment was a very good match. At Systems Command he worked on acquisitions that stemmed from the upgrade of the tactical forces following the conflict in Vietnam. Allen oversaw the later stages of an intensive effort to upgrade the Air Force's tactical forces through acquisition of the C-5, A-10, and F-16. Allen left Systems Command in April 1978 to take over as vice chief of staff of the Air Force and became chief of staff three months later.
Allen got along well with all three of the Air Force secretaries with whom he worked. As chief, Allen worked closely with the Army on doctrinal issues, "attempting to improve the rationalization of the approaches of the two services into a common doctrine."
Like the other services in the early 1980s, the Air Force had Reagan administration support for defense spending. By the end of his tour as chief, Allen could point to some significant progress in correcting long-standing deficiencies in the forces and in improving defense capabilities. Speaking in support of continued attention to national goals, Allen maintained that "we must stay the course" even though it would not be easy.
After retiring from the Air Force in June 1982, Allen became director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif.
The Air Force remembers Allen with the Gen. Lew Allen Jr. Trophy. The trophy is presented to a base-level officer and noncommissioned officer in recognition of outstanding performance involved in aircraft sortie generation.
Sources compiled from Air Force History Support Office.
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