A Quiet Retirement

ARMED FORCES

Twelve years ago last month, Brigadier General Bernard Schriever went to Inglewood, Calif., to start the Air Force's then-secret Western Development Division, a title roughly as revealing as that of the Manhattan Project, which built the atom bomb. Schriever's mission was to turn the drawing-board concept of a nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile into lethal reality--and fast. Intelligence estimates showed that the Russians had powerful rocket boosters that might enable them to get a commanding weaponry lead over the U.S.

With the Pentagon's top priority, generous appropriations from Congress and Schriever's skilled midwifery, the project successfully gave birth to a whole family of missiles, the most recent of which is the Minuteman, current mainstay of the Strategic Air Command. Schriever rode his missiles to four-star rank and leadership of the Air Force Systems Command, where, at the early age of 50, he became his service's No. 1 technocrat. But last week, under a broiling sun and a flyover of 19 jet planes, Schriever, tall and still youthful-looking at 55, took the parade salute at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and went into premature retirement.

Different Approaches. The ICBM was only one of his accomplishments. Schriever thought out and proposed the creation of the Systems Command itself--with "authority to plan, budget, program and control the research and development effort of the Air Force"--ten years before becoming its first chief in 1961. Under him, the command managed a wide assortment of complex programs and projects that ranged from aerospace medical research to combat and transport aircraft, from an automated ground guidance system for interceptor operations to military communications satellites. The Systems Command also worked out administrative techniques, now being widely copied by other Government agencies, for shepherding new technical projects from the planning stage to full-fledged operation.

Nonetheless, Schriever had his frustrations. Although he was a young bomber-flying colonel in World War II, subsequent noncombat assignments took him out of the running to be Air Force Chief of Staff. And like many other senior officers, particularly in the Air Force, Schriever had his differences with Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Schriever believes that if the U.S. is to maintain its military superiority, it must sometimes gamble large sums on chancy projects. McNamara's philosophy is that the need for expensive new weapons and other equipment must first be objectively proved to his satisfaction. "I have tried and tried," Schriever said recently, "but he won't listen to me."

Discreet Complaints. Schriever's difficulties with McNamara were hardly unique and will likely be experienced by his successor, General James Ferguson, 53, whose last job was deputy chief of staff for research and development. While many other prominent service leaders clashed loudly with their civilian superiors in the Defense Department, Schriever was discreet about his complaints. Apparently he intends to continue being that way as he begins a new career as a Washington-based industrial consultant. Unlike the bevy of generals who got the last word in their arguments with civilian superiors by writing mem oirs, Technocrat Schriever plans to pub lish nothing more controversial than a manual on the Systems Command.

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