Bernard Schriever
Bernard Adolph "Bennie" Schriever was a United States Air Force general who played a major role in the Air Force's space and ballistic missile programs.
Born in Bremen, Germany, Schriever immigrated to the United States as a boy and became a naturalized US citizen in 1923. He graduated from Texas A&M in 1931, and was commissioned as a reserve second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. He transferred to the United States Army Air Corps and was awarded his wings and a commission as a reservist second lieutenant in 1933. In 1937, he was released from active duty at his own request and became a pilot with Northwest Airlines, but he returned to the Air Corps with a regular commission in 1938.
During World War II, Schriever received a Master of Arts in aeronautical engineering from Stanford University in June 1942, and was sent to the Southwest Pacific Area, where he flew combat missions as a bomber pilot with the 19th Bombardment Group until it returned to the United States in 1943. He remained in Australia as chief of the maintenance and engineering division of the Fifth Air Force Service Command until the end of the war. After the war, Schriever joined the United States Army Air Forces headquarters at the Pentagon as chief of the Scientific Liaison Branch in the office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Materiel.
In 1954, Schriever became head of the Western Development Division, a special agency created to manage the intercontinental ballistic missile development effort. There he directed the development of the Atlas, Thor, Titan and Minuteman missiles. In 1959, he became commander of Air Research and Development Command, and in 1961, of the Air Force Systems Command. He retired in 1966.
Early life
Bernard Adolph Schriever was born in Bremen, Germany, on 14 September 1910, the son of Adolf Schriever, a mariner, and his wife Elizabeth Milch. He had a younger brother, Gerhard. His father was an engineering officer on the, a German ocean liner which was interned in New York Harbor on the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. Germany was not yet at war with the United States, so Schriever's mother was able to obtain passage to New York for herself and her two sons aboard a Dutch liner,, so that the family could be reunited. She spoke English fluently, having lived in Lower Manhattan as a girl, but the two boys could only speak German. The family arrived on 1 February 1917, just two months before the United States declared war on Germany.As a wave of anti-German sentiment swept across the United States, Schriever and his family moved to New Braunfels, Texas, a community with a large German-speaking population, where his father found work in a brewery. Schriever and his brother went to school there. Classes were taught in English, but their learning was facilitated by the ability of their teachers to translate for them. The family then moved to San Antonio, Texas, where his father worked in a factory making gasoline engines. His father died on 17 September 1918, as a result of an industrial accident, leaving Schriever and his brother in the care of his great uncle, Magnus Klattenhoff, a rancher in Slaton, Texas. At this time, Schriever acquired the nickname, Ben, while his brother Gerhard became known as Gerry. After a year, they returned to New Braunfels, where their mother placed them in an orphanage so she could work.
His mother found work as a housekeeper for a wealthy banker, Edward Chandler, supervising the half dozen or so staff that worked in his mansion. She managed to earn enough money working to take the boys back from the orphanage. Chandler built her a house near the twelfth hole of the Brackenridge Park Golf Course in San Antonio, and her mother immigrated from Germany to care for the boys while she worked. After Chandler died, Schriever's mother turned the refreshment stand that he had built for the children into a thriving business that sold sandwiches, cookies, lemonade, and soft drinks to golfers. The boys became proficient at the sport, and Schriever made the semifinals of the Texas junior championships in June 1927, winning a pair of golf shoes.
Schriever became a naturalized US citizen in 1923. He entered the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas in 1927. His mother paid his $1,000 annual tuition from her sandwich stand profits. He was captain of the golf team in his senior year, and in 1931, the year he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in structural engineering, he won the Texas junior state championship and the San Antonio city championship. He was offered a position as a professional golf player in Bryan, Texas, at a salary of $2,400 a year, more than he could earn doing anything else during the Great Depression years, but professional golf did not have the social respectability or the prize money that it carries today, and he turned it down.
Between the wars
At Texas A&M in those days, the entire all-male student body served in the college's Corps of Cadets and hence the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. Schriever served in an artillery battery in the Corps, so upon graduation he received a reservist commission as a second lieutenant in the Field Artillery Branch. He applied for flight training, and on 1 July 1932, he reported to Randolph Field in San Antonio. He completed this successfully and went on to advanced training at Kelly Field. He graduated on 29 June 1933, and was awarded his wings and a commission as a reservist second lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps. Soon after he was promoted to first lieutenant.Schriever's first posting was to March Field in Riverside County, California, where Lieutenant Colonel Henry H. Arnold was the base commander. Schriever was joined there by his mother and brother. His mother had lost her savings when her bank closed and his brother quit Texas A&M in his sophomore year when she could no longer pay his tuition. At Riverside she became good friends with Arnold's wife Eleanor, known as Bee. Most Air Corps officers worked only half a day, leaving plenty of time for sports. Schriever won a couple of golf tournaments at the nearby Victoria Country Club in Riverside.
However, in the wake of the Air Mail scandal, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called on the Air Corps to deliver the mail, and Schriever flew mail deliveries in Douglas O-38 and Keystone B-4 aircraft. It was dangerous work in bad weather, as neither aircraft was equipped for instrument flying. The air mail delivery allowed Schriever to extend his active service by eight months, but he was still a reservist. He left active duty in March 1935 and returned to San Antonio. In June he volunteered to direct a Civilian Conservation Corps camp of about 200 teenage youths. He applied for a regular commission, but was unsuccessful.
Schriever was able to return to active duty in October 1936, but he had to revert to the rank of second lieutenant. This time he was posted to Albrook Field in the Panama Canal Zone. The base commander there was Brigadier General George H. Brett. Word of Schriever's prowess at golf had reached Panama, and Brett asked him to become one of his aides-de-camp in the hope of improving his own game. Schriever accepted; it was a good career opportunity, and it paid an extra $10 a month. In 1937, he met and courted Brett's eldest daughter, Dora Devol Brett. He again applied for a regular commission, and once again was turned down.
In August 1937, Schriever was released from active duty at his own request, and became a pilot with Northwest Airlines, flying a Lockheed Model 10 Electra between Seattle and Billings, Montana. He married Dora in a ceremony at Arnold's house in Washington, DC, on 3 January 1938. They would later name their first child Brett Arnold. Brett was born in 1939. Two more children followed: Dodie Elizabeth in 1941 and Barbara Alice in 1949. Later that year Arnold, now a brigadier general, came out to Seattle to meet with Boeing executives, and he played a round of golf with Schriever and two others. Arnold urged Schriever to apply for a regular commission one more time, because war was approaching and skilled pilots were needed. Schriever did so, although it meant a cut in pay and reverting to the rank of second lieutenant. This time he was successful, and became a regular officer on 1 October 1938.
World War II
Schriever was assigned to Hamilton Field, California, as a Douglas B-18 Bolo instrument flying instructor with the 7th Bombardment Group. The following year Brett, now the head of the Materiel Division had Schriever transferred to Wright Field, Ohio, where Brett had his headquarters, as an engineering officer and test pilot. Schriever had told his father in law of his ambition to attend the Air Corps Engineering School there, and Brett arranged for Schriever to enter in July 1940. He graduated from it in July 1941, and received a Master of Arts in aeronautical engineering from Stanford University in June 1942, also receiving a promotion to the rank of major.Although Schriever had requested to be transferred to a combat zone after the bombing of Pearl Harbor launched the US into World War II, his request was not approved until after his studies were completed. In July 1942 he was assigned as a bomber pilot to the 19th Bombardment Group in the Southwest Pacific Area, where Brett, now a lieutenant general, was in command of the Allied Air Forces. He flew ten combat missions with the 19th Bombardment Group before it returned to the United States in 1943; around this time he received the Purple Heart. Schriever remained behind as chief of the maintenance and engineering division of the Fifth Air Force Service Command. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in March 1943, and in August became chief of staff of the Fifth Air Force Service Command. He was promoted to colonel on 21 December 1943. For his services, he was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit.