Retired Brig. Gen. Maurice A. Cristadoro Jr., who served as program manager for the Atlas ballistic missile, died Nov. 22 at age 88. Cristadoro began his Air Force career in 1941 as an aviation cadet, receiving his wings in November 1941 and serving in the European Theater in 1944-45 as a flight leader and squadron commander of a P-51 unit. Following the war, he served as chief of the special weapons branch at Wright Air Development Center in Ohio and then on the Air Staff in advanced systems planning. He took over acquisition of the Atlas ballistic missile and later directed ballistic missile programs at Air Force Systems Command. He last served as AFSC’s assistant deputy chief of staff for development plans. Air Force Space Command inducted Cristadoro into the Space and Missile Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2006. (AFSPC report by MSgt. Kate Rust)
More USAF ‘Operational Imperatives’ Likely Coming
Aug. 11, 2022
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall distilled the top fighting priorities of the Air Force and Space Force into seven “operational imperatives” chiefly as a mechanism to identify the spending transitions needed in the fiscal 2023 budget. But they are likely to persist, and more—on electronic warfare, cyber, and munitions—may be…