Supreme Intelligence

Robert J. Hermann left public service 13 years ago, but the 
impact created by his 25-year-plus tenure continues to be 
felt across Washington, D.C., and the globe.

A virtual Who's Who of U.S. military and intelligence leaders 
from the last three decades lines up to praise Hermann's work 
for the National Security Administration (NSA). Many credit 
him as the single most important architect of integrated, 
multiforce systems. Hermann's work, former NATO Commander 
Alexander Haig has said, was "critical to the modernization, 
integration and reform of intelligence and communications 
throughout the armed forces."

Hermann worked for the NSA for more than a dozen years before 
a two-year stint with NATO's military operations in Belgium. 

In 1977, he returned to Washington as deputy assistant 
secretary of defense for Communications, Command, Control and 
Intelligence. In that position, he laid the groundwork for 
the U.S. military's stunning agility and effectiveness so 
evident in the 1991 Gulf War. "I was fortunate to come along 
at the right time," Hermann said. "The business gave you a 
great view of history."

Hermann left government service in 1982 for United 
Technologies Corporation, a $21 billion manufacturing company 
that produces everything from Pratt and Whittney jet engines 
and Sikorsky helicopters to Carrier air conditioners and the 
elevator system for the Eiffel Tower. His reputation in 
Washington remains intact, as witnessed by President 
Clinton's 1993 appointment of Hermann to the President's 
Foreign Intelligence Board. In February, Clinton named 
Hermann to the panel charged with studying the intelligence 
community's post-Cold War missions.

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contact:  Internal Communications, (515) 294-3129
updated:  5-25-95