Lew Allen Lew Allen , Jr . ( September 30 , 1925 January 4 , 2010 ) was a United States Air Force four - star General who served as the tenth Chief of Staff of the U . S . Air Force . As the Chief - of - Staff , Allen served as the senior uniformed Air Force officer , who was responsible for the organization , training , and equipping of 750 , 000 active duty Air Force , Air National Guard , Air Force Reserve , and civilian personal serving in the United States and overseas . As a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , he and the other service chiefs function ( ed ) as the military advisers to the Secretary of Defense , the National Security Council , and the President . World War II . Born in Miami , Florida , Allen attended and graduated from high school in Gainesville , Texas , in 1942 . He entered the United States Military Academy , in 1943 , and he graduated in 1946 with a bachelor of science degree and a commission as a second lieutenant . He was awarded his pilot ' s wings upon his graduation from flight training . Post - World War II . After completing multi - engine flight training in November 1946 , Allen was assigned to Strategic Air Command ' s 7th Bombardment Group at Carswell Air Force Base , Texas , where he flew B - 29 Superfortress bomber s , and then the new and very long - range Convair B - 36 bomber . Allen also served in various technical positions in the area of nuclear weapon s . Allen also attended the Air Tactical Course at Tyndall Air Force Base , Florida , and next he returned to Carswell Air Force Base as a flight instructor and as an assistant Special Weapons Officer for the 7th Bombardment Wing . In September 1950 , Allen entered the University of Illinois for graduate study in nuclear physics . He completed his Master of Science degree in 1952 . Allen continued his graduate study , and he earned his Ph . D . in physics in 1954 . He had completed an experimental thesis on high - energy photonuclear reactions . General Allen then was assigned to the U . S . Atomic Energy Commission ' s Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in Los Alamos , New Mexico , as a physicist in the Test Division , where he became acquainted with the bomb designer Ted Taylor . Allen conducted experiments in several different nuclear test series . These experiments concerned the physics of thermonuclear weapon s design and to the effects of high altitude nuclear explosion s conceivably to be used for ballistic missile defense . From June 1957 to December 1961 , Allen was assigned to Kirtland Air Force Base , New Mexico , as the science adviser to the Physics Division of the Air Force Special Weapons Center . ( " Special weapons " is a euphemism for nuclear and thermonuclear bombs . ) Allen specialized in the military effects of high altitude nuclear explosions and participated in several nuclear weapons test series . He was scientific director of a major experiment that utilized a large series of high altitude rockets to measure the characteristics of electrons trapped in the geomagnetic field after an exoatmospheric nuclear burst . Allen was assigned in December 1961 to the Office of the Secretary of Defense , Space Technology Office , in the Directorate of Research and Engineering , Washington , D . C . From June 1965 to February 1973 , he was assigned to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force , initially in Los Angeles , California , as the Deputy Director for Advanced Plans in the Directorate of Special Projects . Allen next moved to The Pentagon in June 1968 as the Deputy Director of Space Systems , and in June 1969 , he became the Director . He returned to Los Angeles in September 1970 as the assistant to the Director of Special Projects and in April 1971 became the Director of Special Projects , with additional duty as the Deputy Commander for Satellite Programs of the Space and Missile Systems Organization . After serving briefly as the Chief - of - Staff for the Air Force Systems Command at Andrews Air Force Base , Maryland , Allen was appointed in March 1973 as a deputy to the Director of Central Intelligence for the Intelligence Community in Washington , D . C . In August 1973 , Allen became the Director of the National Security Agency ( N . S . A . ) and the Chief of the Central Security Service at Fort George G . Meade , Maryland . Allen ' s tenure as the N . S . A . director was noteworthy in that he became the first N . S . A . director to ever testify publicly before Congress . In August 1977 , he was named Commander of Air Force Systems Command . Allen served as the Vice - Chief - of - Staff of the U . S . Air Force from April 1978 until he became the Chief of Staff of the Air Force in July 1978 . His nomination was unusual in that he had never served in an overseas or combat assignment , and most of his positions were in specialized technical activities , rather than in the usual command structure of the Air Force . Also , he was the last chief of staff with a bomber background ; all subsequent Chiefs of Staff except General Norton Schwartz have been fighterplane pilots , and this trend is reflected by the Service ' s weapon budgets , which devote most funding to fighterplanes rather than bombers . Following his retirement from the Air Force in 1982 , Allen became the Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ( J . P . L . ) , during part of the Voyager Program ( space probes launched in 1977 ) , and he served as the Director of the J . P . L . until 1990 . General Allen was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Council on Foreign Relations . From 1993 to 1995 , Allen served as a member of the President ' s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board ( PFIAB ) and the Intelligence Oversight Board . Allen was awarded the 1999 Distinguished Graduate Award of the Association of Graduates , the alumni association of West Point graduates . The U . S . Air Force has created an award in Allen ' s honor , the General Lew Allen , Jr . , Trophy , which is awarded annually to an Officer and a Senior NCO in the aircraft maintenance or munitions career fields directly involved with setting up aircraft sorties with nuclear weapons . Allen died in Potomac Falls , Virginia , on January 4 , 2010 of complications from rheumatoid arthritis . He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery on March 22 , 2010 .