ROBERT TRALLES HERRES 6 February 1987 — 28 February 1990 obert Herres was born on 1 December 1932 in Denver, Colorado. His father on had taught Morse Code to Army aviators in World War I, and Herres's older brother graduated from the US Military Academy. Graduating from East High School in Denver, Herres applied for appointments to both West Point and the US Naval Academy, winning appointment to the latter in 1950. During the summer before his final year as a midshipman, he learned to fly seaplanes over the Chesapeake Bay. Enthralled by flying and anxious to begin flight training immediately upon graduation, Herres exercised an option available before the establishment of the Air Force Academy and entered the Air Force as a second lieutenant after graduating from the Naval Academy in 1954. Following flight training, Lieutenant Herres flew F-86 fighters for the next three years. After earning a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, in 1958, Herres was promoted to captain in 1959 and to major five years later. From 1960 to 1963 he was assigned as an analyst at the US European Command Electronic Intelligence Center, Lindsey Air Station, West Germany, where he developed estimates of the technical capabilities of Soviet bloc forces. After a year in flight operations at Chateauroux Air Station in France, he entered the Air Command and Staff College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. During this period he also earned a master's degree in public administration from George Washington University. Herres was selected as an astronaut-pilot in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program in 1966. Promoted in February 1967, Lieutenant Colonel Herres graduated from the Aerospace Research Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base, General Robert Tralles Herres United States Air Force California, where he flew F-104 Starfighters and a variety of other aircraft. Moving to the MOL program at Los Angeles Air Force Station, California, he served from August 1967 to August 1969 as an aerospace research flight test officer, Chief of the Flight Crew Division, and Assistant to the Deputy Program Director for Test Operations. He was promoted to colonel in November 1968 and, on cancellation of the MOL program in June 1969, became Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Requirements at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards Air Force Base. From 1970 to 1971 Herres attended the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort Lesley J. McNair, Washington, DC, where he helped draft a text on the military uses of space. In 1971 Colonel Herres became Vice Commander of Strategic Air Command's (SAC) 449th Bombardment Wing, Kincheloe Air Force Base, Michigan, flying B-52 bombers, and was appointed wing commander in February 1973. In April 1973 he left Kincheloe to command the 310th Strategic Wing (Provisional) at U-Tapao Royal Thai Naval Air Field, Thailand, where KC-135 tankers under his command flew missions in support of US military operations in Southeast Asia. Six months later, Herres returned to Kincheloe to resume command of the 449th. He remained there until March 1974, when he was designated Director of Command and Control at SAC Headquarters, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. In September 1974 he was promoted to brigadier general. During the next decade General Herres served both in command positions and in staff assignments involving command, control, and communications (C3). In 1975 he became Deputy Commander, Security Assistance Lieutenant Colonel Herres, far left, at the announcement of his selection for the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, 1967. Programs, in the Electronics System Division, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, where he managed foreign military sales programs. In August 1977 Herres joined the Air Staff as Assistant Chief of Staff for Communications and Computer Resources. He was promoted to major general in March 1978. Two command assignments followed. Herres headed the Air Force Communications Command, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, from 1979 to 1981. From 1981 to 1982 he commanded SAC's Eighth Air Force, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. His command included B-52s, FB-111s, KC-135s, and Minuteman and Titan intercontinental ballistic missiles. Having received his third star in August 1981, he returned to the Pentagon in 1982. As Director of Command, Control, and Communications on the Joint Staff from October 1982 to July 1984, General Herres worked closely with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Vessey, and the Service Chiefs on programs, plans, and budgets affecting all unified and specified commands and their service components. In July 1984 Herres was promoted to general and became the Commander in Chief of the US-Canadian North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and its supporting US organization, the USAF Aerospace Defense Command (ADCOM); and Commander of the USAF Space Command at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado. His skills as a pilot, engineer, technical intelligence analyst, commander, programmer, and manager of strategic command, control, and communications systems uniquely qualified him for these responsibilities. From Colorado Springs, Herres continued to work with General Vessey on two related projects, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)—a program to develop both terrestrial and space-based systems for the defense of North America against attack by Soviet ballistic missiles-and the establishment of a unified command for space. This new command was to assume broad responsibilities for military space systems supporting all three military departments and for both the ballistic missile defense effort and selected missions of the Aerospace Defense Command. The campaign to unify all US military space efforts succeeded on 23 September 1985, when President Ronald Reagan established the US Space Command and selected Herres as its first Commander in Chief (USCINCSPACE). On 6 February 1987 General Herres became the first Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a position established by the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols DOD Reorganization Act. He served for two and one-half years with Admiral William Crowe. In formulating the responsibilities for this new posi tion, Crowe, Herres, and Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger agreed that the Vice Chairman would chair the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC) and the Nuclear Command and Control System; serve as Vice Chairman of the Defense Acquisition Board (DAB); and represent the Chairman on the Defense Resources Board, the executive committee of the On-Site Inspection Agency, the Nuclear Weapons Council, the Aeronautics and Astronautics Coordinating Board, and the National Space Council. When the Bush administration established the Deputies Committee of the National Security Council in 1989, the Vice Chairman served as the Chairman's representative on the committee. Admiral Crowe relied on Herres for his technical expertise, particularly in the areas of space and command and control. As Chairman of the JROC and Vice Chairman of the DAB, Herres institutionalized the role of the military in setting requirements for major weapons systems. As Defense Weekly summarized, he "breathed new life into the JROC... and put the process back in the hands of the military and the Joint Staff." In the JROC, Herres and the Service Vice Chiefs developed procedures for review and evaluation of potential joint military requirements, selected new programs to recommend to the DAB for joint development and acquisition, oversaw cross-service requirements and management issues, and resolved service differences that arose after initiation of joint programs. During Herres's tenure the JROC focused on close air support, space-based surveillance, and antisatellite systems. Herres served briefly as Vice Chairman with General Colin Powell, who became Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 1 October 1989. During the early months of Powell's chairmanship, Herres worked with his counterparts in the NSC Deputies Committee during the attempted rebel coup General Herres, as Acting Chairman, briefs the National Security Council at the White House, 1987. Left to right: General Herres, Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger, President Ronald Reagan. against Philippine President Corazon Aquino in November 1989 and the US intervention in Panama that December. General Herres chose to retire before the expiration of his second term. Following his retirement on 28 February 1990, he joined USAA, a diversified insurance and financial services association headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. He was appointed its chairman and chief executive officer in September 1993. In retirement, Herres chaired the presi dential commission appointed to assess the role of women in the military and was a member of Vice President Dan Quayle's Space Policy Advisory Board and the Augustine Committee, which, at the request of President George H. W. Bush, reviewed the future of the US space program. He was chairman of the board of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the Insurance Information Institute and chairman of the National Association of Independent Insurers. An Eagle Scout, |