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Famous Mormons in the Military Including civilian NASA administrators
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Lieutenant General Bruce Carlson USAF (active) |
Gen. Bruce Carlson a four-star general
serves as Commander, Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air
Force Base, Ohio. The command conducts research, development, test and
evaluation, and provides acquisition management services and logistics
support necessary to keep Air Force weapon systems ready for war.
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James Cawley US Marine Staff Sergeant |
Click here to go to James Cawley's Famous Mormons page | |
 Photo: Honolulu Advertiser |
Lieutenant Colonel Larry Chesley USAF (retired) POW |
“I am a Mormon and I believe deeply in my religion. It was one
of the strengths I clung to during those dark days. I believe in a God who is
like a Father, One who cares about His children. I had a patriarchal blessing
when I was young (about 14) and it said that if I were ever called into war that
no matter what would come or what would go, I would be returned to my loved
ones. So I never doubted for a moment. I knew that I would come home someday.”
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 Photo: Houston Chronicle |
Ron Dittemore Former Director Space Shuttle Program |
Shortly before their marriage, he and his fiancé
became members of The Church. He is a high councilor in the Friendswood, Texas
Stake. Announces his resignation, 23 Apr 2003
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 Photo: Tracking a Tryrant, Arizona Republic, 19 Dec 2003 |
corporal Harold Engstrom U.S. Army |
He grew up in Arizona and served a full-time mission to Holland and Belgium. He graduated from Univeristy of Utah and began teaching high school English.
After September 11, 2001, he switched careers and joined the Army.
He is attached to the 104th Military
Intelligence Battalion and played a pivotal role in the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003.
He and his partner worked for eight months reading through interrogation reports and plumbing a huge database provided by central military intelligence.
Finally, they created a four-page, 46-by-42-inch color-coded chart with 300 names on it identifying Hussein's relatives, associates and henchmen.
The chart was used to apprehend leaders of Iraqi resistance cells including Saddam himself.
His unit returned to the States in April 2004. Source: LDS soldier helps nab Saddam by Jason Swensen, Church News, 24 Jan 2004
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The corporal's blog |
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Colonel Bernard F. Fisher USAF (retired) |
He was an A-1E pilot during the Vietnam War. During a run over
the A-Shau Valley 10 Mar 1966, supporting the ground based Special Forces, enemy
resistance shot down his wingman, Major Wayne Myers. Without time to get aid,
Major Fisher landed his plane on an all-but-destroyed airstrip, picked up his
wingman, and flew him to safety. In total, nineteen bullet holes were found on
his plane. For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life
above and beyond the call of duty, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by
President Lyndon B. Johnson, 19 Jan 1967. He is the first living US Air Force
recipient of the Medal of Honor and the first USAF member to receive the medal
from Vietnam.
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 Photo: NASA |
James Fletcher (1919-1991) NASA Administrator |
He was the administrator of NASA who gained the approval to
develop the Space Shuttle as the follow-on human space flight effort. He also
served as NASA administrator a second time, following the loss of the Space
Shuttle Challenger on 28 Jan 1986.
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Biographical information from NASA |
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Colonel Gail Halvorsen USAF (retired) |
He was perhaps the most famous pilot of the Berlin airlift.
While delivering supplies to the Templehof airport during 1948 and 1949,
Halvorsen began parachuting packages of chewing gum and chocolates to Berlin children, earning him the nicknames, "Candy Bomber," Source: CNN |
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 Photo by U.S. Army Cpl. Todd Pruden |
Paul Holton
Chief Wiggles |
Paul Holton, better known as “Chief Wiggles,” is the
founder of Operation Give, a
humanitarian
organization that ships toys,
medicine, and educational supplies to children in war-torn and devastated
nations throughout the world. President Bush recognized Chief Wiggles in 2004 saying “a guardsman from Utah named Paul Holton has described seeing an Iraqi girl crying and decided then and there to help that child and others like her. By enlisting aid through the Internet, Chief Warrant Officer Holton arranged the shipment of more than 1,600 aid packages from overseas.” |
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 Photo: Mormon Battalion |
Captain Jefferson Hunt Mormon Battalion (1800-1900) |
He lead the Mormon Battalion from Council Bluffs, Iowa to San Diego, California in 1846.
In 1848, he lead a group of settlers from Salt Lake City to established a Mormon colony in San Bernardino.
In 1853, he was elected to represent San Bernardino in the state legislature where he successfully divided San Bernardino county from Los Angeles county, thus earning him the title of "father" of San Bernardino county.
In 1856 he was made brigadier general in the California militia Sources: San Bernardino County History |
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Deseret News |
Captain Bill Jacobsen U.S. Army (1973-2004) |
Recently serving in Iraq as part of the Army's 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment.
While helping to secure the city of Mosul,
one of his roles was to stand a top an armored vehicle and dispense seemingly random
judgments upon the military-age young men which other soldiers had rounded up.
In reality, an informant sat in the armored vehicle with live video feed identifying those who had joined the growing insurgency.
The fine line between stopping insurgents and unfairly punishing innocents is difficult to maintain when casting such wide net. |
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 Photo: Royal News |
Lance Corporal Jason Johnson USMC (discharged) |
He is from Long Beach, California.
He served a full-time mission in Texas.
While serving with a
counter-terrorism unit providing security to US citizens in Bahrain in 1999,
he met and fell in love with Meriam Al-Khalifa, a distant cousin to the king of Bahrain
who was expected to marry another member of the royal family.
He was court-martialed (and demoted) after smuggling her into the US in November 1999.
They appealed to the press, and she was successful in gaining political asylum and US citizenship.
They were married 16 Nov 1999.
The FBI once told him they had intercepted a man who claimed that he had been paid $500,000 to assassinate her.
He was granted an honorable "humanitarian" discharge with the provision that he not be allowed to re-enlist.
He got a job as a parking valet.
They participated in the making of a made for TV movie in 2001.
Sadly, they separated in 2003 and on 17 Nov 2004, they divorced.
Source: The Princess and the U.S. Marine By Scott Pierce, Deseret News, 11 Jan 2001, P2 |
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 Photo: Deseret News |
Chief Warrant Officer Jared Kimber U.S. Army (active) |
His primary duty as part of the 82nd Medical Company in Iraq was flying a Blackhawk helicopter into combat zones,
then transporting injured soldiers to safety.
One day in April 2004 he and his crew were flying north of Kirkuk.
They spotted a group of children kicking around a flattened, weathered soccer ball.
The crew returned to base and gathered up loose balls, Frisbees and other recreational equipment.
Then they flew back to the village and dropped the toys to delighted children below.
He wrote his mother in Tremonton, Utah for more toys, and the word spread.
The toy bombings have offered regular, home-front folks a chance to deliver a measure of happiness to Iraq. Source: LDS toy bomber drops goodies to war-weary Iraqi children by Jason Swensen, Church News, 03 Jul 2004, Page Z07 |
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Lieutenant General James King U.S. Army (retired) |
Commander of the United States Army, Lt. General King is an acknowledged expert in developing intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and intelligence on operations concepts, architectures, requirements, and system solutions. | |
 Photo: Space Facts |
Commander Don LindU.S. Naval Reserve | He was a mission specialist on STS-51B (29 Apr 1985 to 06 May 1985) and has logged over 168 hours in space. He left NASA in 1986. He is currently a professor of physics at Utah State University. | biographical data from NASA |
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Dr. Ellis Miner Astronomer |
Dr. Ellis Miner, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
since 1965, has worked on missions to Saturn and six other planets. "Whenever we
investigate a planet in detail," he says, "we discover answers to a lot of
questions, but we inevitably raise even more new questions." They recently gathered for a family reunion - a tough feat for a family that large, Miner joked. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he has served in leadership roles and taught high school students at early morning seminary. Miner has also penned books on Uranus and Neptune. He served as the science manager for the Saturn-bound Cassini mission for nearly a decade and is currently a member of the Earth and Planetary Sciences Division Staff and co-director of the NASA Solar System Exploration Education and Public Outreach Forum. | |
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Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka |
Thirteen people were killed when an Army psychiatrist allegedly opened fire on soldiers at the Fort Hood Army base, including Pfc. Aaron Thomas Nemelka. Here is a short profile: The family of one of the victims of the Ft. Hood shooting spoke publicly Saturday, saying that Aaron Nemelka was “proud to serve his country in the military” and that “he had a deep sense of duty and responsibility.”Mr. Nemelka, a 19-year-old private first class from West Jordan, Utah, trained as a combat engineer and was slated to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan in January. “He was proud to follow in the footsteps of both of his grandfathers, two of his uncles, and his cousin,” said Mr. Nemelka’s father, Michael. “He felt it was his duty to stand with them in defense of our country.” WSJ Staff | www.nemelkafamily.com |
 Photo: Deseret News |
General Robert Oaks USAF (retired) |
The first LDS four-star general, he retired from the US Air Force in 1994, after serving on the Pentagon staff,
as commander of the 86th Tactical Fighter Wing and later US Air Forces Europe at Ramstein AFB in Germany,
and allied NATO forces in Naples, Italy, among other assignments.
He is a Vietnam veteran.
At the time of his call to be a general authority (2000), he was senior vice president of operations for US Airways.
At that time, he was president of the Pittsburgh Pennsylvania North Stake.
He has also served as mission president's counselor, Young Men president and gospel doctrine teacher.
As a Seventy, he presided over the Africa Southeast Area.
He was born in Los Angeles, California. He has six children.
In 2004, he replaced Elder Uchtdorf in the presidency of the Seventy. Source: New authorities, LDS Church News, 09 Oct 2004, page Z23 |
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John R. (Roger) Lasater Air Force general (retired) |
Not since Joseph Smith was lieutenant general of the Nauvoo Legion has there been a General Authority of the Church who was actually a general. Elder John R. Lasater, sustained in April conference 1987 to the First Quorum of the Seventy, becomes the first. A retired Air Force general and F-4 fighter pilot by profession, Elder Lasater, fifty-five, has been serving as president of the New Zealand Auckland Mission. Born 8 December 1931, Elder Lasater married the former Marilyn Jones of Samaria, Idaho. They are the parents of four daughters—Mary Lynn, Leslie Ann, Melanie, and Carolyn,and a son Garth. | |
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Lieutenant General Brent Scowcroft USAF (retired) |
National security adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush, Sr. | |
 Photo: NASA |
Colonel Richard A. Searfoss USAF (retired) |
He commanded a seven-person crew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. The space shuttle was launched on 17 Apr 1998 and after 256 orbits, landed at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 03 May 1998. He is the first Mormon to ever command a NASA space craft. | biographical data from NASA |
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Colonel Walter T. Stewart USAF (retired) |
During World War II, he piloted a B-24 bomber named the "Utah Man." He led a crew of ten men on the surprise bombing of Hitler's oil fields in Romania. One hundred sixty planes participated in that raid, more than 50 of them did not return. The "Utah Man" was last to return to base in Libya, with all tanks empty and the plane full of holes. This was his 31st mission. Only 25 missions were required at the time in order to retire from bomber duty. He was belatedly awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in the 1990s for his participation in the mission. It had originally been awarded to someone else by mistake, due to a paperwork mix-up. He participated in the making of the documentary film titled "Wing and a Prayer, The Saga of Utah Man" which tells the story of this historic raid. | |
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Pharmacist's Mate Second Class George Wahlen US Navy |
On February 26, 1945, he was wounded at Iwo Jima.
He remained on the battlefield, advancing forward of the frontlines to help a wounded Marine and carry him back to safety.
When an adjacent platoon suffered casualties, he cared for the wounded and treated 14 casualties before returning to his platoon.
Four days later, he was wounded again, but he refused evacuation.
He moved out with his company the following day rendering aid while exposed to Japanese fire.
After sustaining a third wound, he was unable to walk, but he crawled 50 yards to administer aid to another fallen fighter.
For gallantry at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty, he was awarded the Medal of Honor.
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His biography, The Quiet Hero by Gary Toyn will be available 11 Nov 2005. It features a forward by Senator Bob Dole and an introduction by Senator Orrin Hatch. Wahlen is the last surviving Medal of Honor recipient from Utah. |
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Admiral Paul A. Yost USCG (retired) |
18th Commandant of the U.S. Coastguard
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