Thomas C . Reed Thomas Care Reed ( born March 1 , 1934 ) was the 11th Secretary of the Air Force from January 2 , 1976 – April 6 , 1977 under Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter . Early life . He was born in New York City , N . Y . , in 1934 . He attended Deerfield Academy , and then received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Cornell University , graduating first in his class in 1956 . As an undergraduate , he was enrolled in Cornell ' s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program and was the highest - ranking officer , cadet colonel , during his senior year . He was designated a distinguished military graduate and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force upon graduation . Reed was elected into the Sphinx Head Society during his senior year . Military career . Reed began active duty with the Air Force in November 1956 , and served until 1959 as technical project officer for the Minuteman Re - Entry Vehicle System with the Air Force ' s Ballistic Missile Division . While on this assignment , he attended the University of Southern California during off - duty hours and earned a master of science degree in electrical engineering . In 1959 , he was assigned to the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory of the University of California , engaged in thermonuclear weapons physics . He was released from active duty with the Air Force in May 1961 , but he rejoined the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory as a civilian for the 1962 test series , continuing there as a consultant until 1967 . In 1962 , Reed organized Supercon Ltd . of Houston , Texas , as its managing partner . Supercon developed and produced alloys superconducting at cryogenic temperatures . While maintaining an interest in Supercon Ltd . , Reed organized the Quaker Hill Development Corporation at San Rafael , California , in 1965 , and served as its treasurer , president and chairman . Quaker Hill has agricultural , recreational and construction projects in California and Colorado . Reed joined the Department of Defense as an assistant to the secretary and deputy secretary of defense in 1973 , and was appointed director of Telecommunications and Command and Control Systems in February 1974 . Political career . Reed was also active in the political world . He was an organizer for Ronald Reagan ' s first campaign for governor of California in 1966 . He helped finance Governor Reagan ' s first unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1968 . Reed established a national network of political operatives and hired F . Clifton White , the noted political strategist , to guide the effort . Reagan lost to Richard Nixon . Reed managed Reagan ' s successful gubernatorial re - election campaign in 1970 . In 1972 , Reed performed as a national operative for the Nixon presidential re - election drive . Reagan also ran unsuccessfully for the White House in 1976 and finally succeeded in 1980 . Reed was not actively involved in either effort . Writing career . On March 9 , 2004 , " " , an autobiographical book about his experience at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory through his time as an advisor to President Ronald Reagan . It reveals new details about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis , the Central Intelligence Agency , the Farewell Dossier , and other facets of the Cold War . Reed ' s second book , co - authored with Danny B . Stillman , was titled " The Nuclear Express : A Political History of the Bomb and Its Proliferation " and was published in January 2009 . One of the authors ' most notable contentions is that in 1982 China made a policy decision to flood the developing world with atomic know - how . In February 2012 Reed published a spy novel " The Tehran Triangle , " ( Black Garnet Press 2012 ) . The book is about Iran ' s attempt to build and ignite an A bomb in the USA