USAF announces Space, Missile Pioneer Award winners (Forwarded)

Air Force Space Command News Service

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 21, 2003

Story ID 03-175

AF announces Space, Missile Pioneer Award winners
By Tech. Sgt. Gino Mattorano, Air Force Space Command Public Affairs

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Four visionaries who helped pave the way for
the successful national space and missile programs of today were selected to
receive the 2003 Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Award. They will be
honored in an award ceremony and Hall of Fame Induction Luncheon here on Aug. 28.

John C. "Jack" Herther, retired Brig. Gen. Martin Menter, retired Navy Capt.
Robert C. Truax, and retired Col. Albert J. "Red" Wetzel will receive the award,
which will be presented by Gen. Lance W. Lord, AFSPC Commander. The award
recognizes civilians and military members who played significant roles in the
advancement of Air Force space and missile programs.

"This award is especially significant because at the time, for political and
security reasons, these men received little public recognition for their
accomplishments," said Skip Bradley, AFSPC historian. "The award gives them the
formal recognition they never received while actively contributing to the Air
Force space mission."

A panel chaired by AFSPC's former vice commander, Lt. Gen.Robert Hinson,
selected this year's award recipients. Each year, the panel reviews all
nomination packages and selects two to four winners. The AFSPC commander
approves the panel's decisions before announcing the winners.

Herther, in his May 1955 master's thesis, proposed placing a satellite in a
300-mile, circular orbit by means of computer-controlled vernier thrusters from
rocket burnout to apogee. From this foundation, he worked as an Air Force
lieutenant and Itek engineer to design a three-axis stabilization system during
the late 1950s that enabled Lockheed's Agena space vehicle to become the
workhorse of the Corona reconnaissance program.

Menter, in his May 1959 ICAF thesis titled "Astronautical Law," asserted that
the Roman maxim ex facto oritur jus (law rises from fact) was appropriate for
the development of space law. His was one of the first legal treatises on space
law anywhere. He was concerned especially with the effects of space activity on
the concept of sovereignty, and from the 1960s onward was an international
leader in the fields of aeronautical and space law.

Truax began experimenting with liquid-fueled rocket engines while at the US
Naval Academy in 1936. Frustrated with the navy's progress in large-scale rocket
development, he arranged in 1955 for assignment to the US Air Force's Western
Development Division, where he played an instrumental role over the course of
three years in the early stages of the Thor IRBM and WS-117L satellite
development programs.

Wetzel directed the Titan (WS 107A-2) intercontinental ballistic missile program
from its concept stage to operational readiness during 1958-1961. His leadership
resulted in the decision to make a complete configuration change for Titan II,
which remained on alert as an ICBM into the late 1980s, was man-rated to launch
NASA's Gemini spacecraft into Earth orbit, and was refurbished to launch
satellites into the 21st century.

The Air Force Space Pioneers Award was first given under the sponsorship of the
National Space Club in Washington, D.C., which in 1989 honored ten key military
and civilian leaders in the Air Force space program. In 1997, the program was
revitalized and established as an official Air Force award under AFSPC. It was
renamed the Air Force Space and Missile Pioneers Award and first presented in
1997during the Air Force's 50th anniversary celebrations.

The award ceremony is at 11 a.m. in the Hartinger Building Atrium. The Induction
Luncheon is at noon at the Officers' Club. The luncheon is open to all Peterson
and Schriever AFB personnel. For more information or to attend the luncheon,
call Lt. Col. Fernando Aguilar at 554-8322.