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MAJOR GENERAL BRIEN D. WARD
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Retired Sep. 1, 1975.
Major General Brien D. Ward is deputy chief of staff for science and technology, Headquarters Air Force Systems Command, Andrews Air Force Base, Md. He has technical direction responsibility for approximately 2,500 military and 6,600 civilian members of the Air Force Laboratory Technology Team, and is responsible for all the command's research, exploratory and advanced development programs, including 14 laboratories, five liaison offices and the European Office of Aerospace Research and Development with a budget in 1983 of $1.7 billion.
General Ward was born July 29, 1932, in Brigham City, Utah, and graduated from Weber High School in 1950. In 1951, he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and graduated in 1955 with a bachelor of science degree in military engineering and sciences and a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. The general earned a master's degree in mathematics from Texas Tech University, Lubbock, in 1959; a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1961; and a doctorate in control systems engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1967. He is also a graduate of the National War College, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C.
After basic pilot training at Moore Air Base, Texas, and advanced training at Reese Air Force Base, Texas, General Ward received his pilot wings in August 1956. He then served as a flight instructor at Reese Air Force Base until June 1959 when he entered the University of Colorado Graduate School of Engineering.
His initial assignment in the research and development field was as a project officer on the SLV-3 space booster at Headquarters Space Systems Division, Los Angeles. In June 1964 he entered the graduate school of the University of California, Los Angeles. From March 1967 to August 1968, General Ward was a tactical fighter pilot at Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base, Thailand, where he flew more than 180 combat missions. In September 1968 he transferred to the Directorate of Space, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C., to serve as a research and development project officer.
He graduated from the National War College in June 1971 and was assigned to Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, as deputy system program director of the A-X System Program Office. General Ward next served as the executive assistant to the principal deputy director of Defense for research and engineering, Washington, D.C., from August 1972 to May 1974. He then returned to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as commander of the Air Force Flight Dynamics Laboratory and, in July 1975, he became the first commander of the Air Force Wright Aeronautical Laboratories.
In July 1977 General Word transferred to Air Force Systems Command headquarters as assistant deputy chief of staff for systems. He assumed his present duties in July 1978.
The general is a command pilot and wears the senior missile badge. His military decorations and awards include the Silver Star with two oak leaf clusters, Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with nine oak leaf clusters and Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster.
He was promoted to major general Feb. 1, 1982, with date of rank Jan. 8, 1978.
(Current as of July 1983)
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