No: 52
Date: 1/1/1993
Name: Gen. Lee Butler
General Butler was the first commander-in-chief of the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base, where he had held the same position when it was the Strategic Air Command. Shown with him are all the airplanes under his command, many of which he had piloted, as well as a submarine and intercontinental ballistic missile symbolizing new areas for which he was responsible. Butler had more than 3,500 hours of flying under his belt as a command pilot. In the Face drawing, he is standing in an ocean indicating that the Navy was now part of the Command at Offutt. The general arrived at the Press Club for the unveiling with his security detail and the communications he needed if war was declared. General Butler retired in 1994, one year after his "Face" was unveiled and after 33 years of military service, and joined Peter Kiewit Sons' Inc. Later the ex-military officer who once had responsibility for all Air Force and Navy strategic nuclear forces would become an anti-nuclear war activist, speaking and writing about his objections to nuclear war. Back to Top