Brigadier General Elmer T. Brooks is assistant deputy undersecretary of defense for strategic and theater nuclear forces Washington D.C.
General Brooks was born in Washington, D.C., in 1932. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in zoology from Miami (Ohio) University in 1954, and was commissioned through the Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps program. In 1973, General Brooks received a Master of Science degree from The George Washington University, Washington, D.C., and graduated from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Fort, Lesley J. McNair, Washington, D.C. General Brooks completed the Executive Program of the Colgate Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia under the Air Force's Advanced Management Program in 1978.
He entered the U.S. Air Force in April 1955, and was assigned to a Continental Air Command Air Reserve Flying Center, Greater Pittsburgh (Pa.) Airport, as unit adjutant, then as base director of personnel. The general then went to the Philippines as a radar station commander and later as a personnel division chief at Headquarters, 13th Air Force, Clark Air Base.
In July 1961, General Brooks returned to the U.S. and was assigned as a missile combat crew commander and instructor missile crew commander with the Atlas F intercontinental ballistic missile system at Lincoln Air Force Base, Neb.
From November 1965 to May 1968, the general served in Houston as a flight control technologist for the Gemini and Apollo space missions at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Manned Spacecraft Center. He then became a resource manager and section chief at the Air Force Military Personnel Center, Randolph AFB, Texas, until August 1972.
After completing the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in August 1973, General Brooks remained in Washington, D.C., where he was assigned to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force, Space Systems Office, as executive officer. He become the military assistant to the special assistant to the Secretary and Deputy Secretaries of Defense in June 1975, and later served as military assistant to Secretaries of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld and Harold Brown.
General Brooks became vice commander of the 381st Strategic Missile Wing, a Titan II intercontinental ballistic missile unit at McConnell AFB, Kan., in July 1978, and commanded the wing from January 1979 until October 1981. He then returned to Washington, D.C., as assistant deputy director, international negotiations, Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and was appointed by the president as Deputy Commissioner of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Standing Consultative Commission. In September 1982, he became Deputy Director, international negotiations, Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. General Brooks assumed his present duties in August 1983.
The general's military decorations and awards include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon with two oak leaf clusters, Combat Readiness Medal, master missile badge and space badge.
He was promoted to brigadier general Sept. 1, 1981, with same date of rank.
(Current as of February 1984)