Daniel O. Graham

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Daniel O. Graham (1926-1995) was a U.S. Army officer. Graham was born in Portland, Oregon and grew up in Medford. He attended college at the United States Military Academy at West Point, the Army's Command and General Staff College, and graduated in 1946. He also attended the U.S. Army War College and ultimately rose to the rank of Lieutenant General in the United States Army. Graham served in Germany, Korea, and Vietnam and received several decorations including some of the highest the United States military bestows: the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, and the Distinguished Intelligence Medal during his distinguished 30 year military career.

[edit] History

From 1963-1966, Graham worked for the CIA in the Office of National Estimates. During the Vietnam war from 1967-1968 he was chief of the Army's military intelligence estimates.^[1]

Graham served again in the Office of National Estimates during 1968-1971, then served as Director of Collections for the Defense Intelligence Agency in 1971. During 1973-1974 Graham served as Deputy Director of the CIA under Director William Colby and from 1974-1976 he was the Director of the DIA. Ronald Reagan called upon General Graham to be his military advisor for his 1976 and 1980 campaigns. General Graham is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

In later years, Graham devoted a lot of time to the research and development of Single-Stage To Orbit (SSTO) spacecraft in conjunction with NASA. McDonnell Douglas was awarded a contract to build an SSTO test vehicle on 16 August 1991, and named it the DC-X for Delta Clipper Experimental. The name honored the firm's successful Thor/Delta rocket and recalled the famous 19th-century commercial clipper ships. The McDonnell Douglas SSTO team saw the Delta Clipper as opening the "space trade routes in the same way that the Yankee Clipper ships opened the sea trade routes." The needs of the commercial launch industry thus were integral to the thinking of the McDonnell Douglas DC-X team. General Graham envisioned the DC-X as the perfect inexpensive launch and delivery vehicle for his proposed Brilliant Pebbles space-based ballistic missile defense shield.^[2]

The first test launch of the DC-X was on 18 August 1993. Even though the test flight verified flight control systems and vertical landing capabilities, the test was deemed a failure. After undergoing design and engineering renovations, the first successful launch of the DC-X was on 20 June 1994.^[3] Graham was elated and continued to work closely with the program. Unfortunately, Graham would not live to see the full glory of the DC-X program. He died in December of 1995.

On Friday, 7 June 1996 at White Sands, New Mexico, the second series vehicle designated DC-XA was successfully launched. It flew to a height of 485 meters (1,600ft) and then moved horizontally 105 meters (350ft) before safely landing. After that flight, NASA officials announced that the DC-XA had been renamed the "Clipper Graham" in memory of Lt. General Daniel O. Graham. The next day, 8 June 1996, to demonstrate the quick-turnaround capability of the rocket, the Clipper Graham soared into the skies over the old White Sands Missile Range to a height of 3,120 meters ( 10,300ft) and stayed in the air for over two minutes before landing. That flight was the highest and longest the vehicle had ever flown until then. A lofty tribute to an SDI and SSTO pioneer.^[4]

[edit] Political activism

Graham was chairman of the American Space Frontier Committee, the Coalition for the Strategic Defense Initiative, and in 1978 he became Co-Chairman of the Coalition for Peace through Strength.

In 1981 Graham founded High Frontier, Inc., a private organization that promotes a kinetic-energy weapons approach to space-based defense with help from members of President Ronald Reagan's "Kitchen Cabinet".^[5] According to Graham, he is considered by most to be the actual originator of the Strategic Defense Initiative concept.^[6] However, the plan as put forward by Reagan also included an emphasis on directed energy technologies such as lasers and particle beams, in addition to the cheaper, "off the shelf" kinetic energy technologies promoted by Graham and High Frontier.^{[citation needed]}

The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization was renamed by President Bill Clinton to the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization on 13 May, 1993 and continues today.^[7]

Daniel O. Graham, Founder and Director, High Frontier(Left) and Rafael Picklesimer, Intelligence Specialist and Speech Maker, High Frontier(Right) - 1988

He was also a member of the American Freedom Coalition and was vice chairman of the U.S. Council for World Freedom, and served on the advisory board of a Unification Church's anticommunist association, CAUSA- USA.^[8]

[edit] Quote From Ronald Reagan

"As you know, Dan, you and I were talking about missile defense before you set up High Frontier in September of '81...You and a small group of dedicated, determined people helped us move the SDI concept over all the roadblocks put up by people of less vision and belief in American capacity. God bless you!" -- President Ronald Reagan, March 1993^[9]

[edit] Death

Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham died of prostate cancer at his home in Arlington, Virginia on Sunday, 31 December 1995 at the age of 70. General Graham was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors.^[10]

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• Confessions of a Cold Warrior - his autobiography, 1995
• Remembering General Dan Graham, by Paul Weyrich, cited by Hon. Frank R. Wolf in the House of Representatives, January 5, 1996