MAJOR GENERAL DANIEL L. BURKETT
Retired
November 01,1978
Died January 05,1995
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Major General Daniel Lee Burkett is deputy commander, Air Force Engineering and Services Agency, and commander, Air Force Commissary Service at Kelly Air Force Base, Texas.
General Burkett was born in Santa Monica, Calif., in 1925, moved to Pomona, Calif., at an early age and graduated from Pomona High School in 1942. He was attending Pomona Junior College when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska and a master's degree in international affairs from The George Washington University.
He was ordered to active military duty in October 1943 and entered training as an aviation cadet. He completed cadet training at Ellington Field, Texas, in January 1945 and graduated as a navigator with a commission as a second lieutenant. In February 1945 he was assigned to Victorville, Calif., where he completed bombardier and radar observer training and then served as a radar instructor.
In May 1946 he joined the 46th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron at Grand Island, Neb., as a navigator and radar observer. He was transferred to Ladd Field Alaska, in June 1946 and flew reconnaissance missions in B-29s with the 72d Reconnaissance Squadron.
General Burkett served as a radar observer and navigator in B-29 and B-50 aircraft with the 93d Bombardment Wing and then in B-36s with the 28th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing from February 1949 to August 1951, when he entered pilot training. After graduation in September 1952, he returned to the 93d Bombardment Wing, flying B-47s and B-52s.
From 1956 to 1965 General Burkett was assigned to Strategic Air Command in command and control positions at wing level, Headquarters Fifteenth Air Force, and at Headquarters SAC.
During the period of 1960 to 1963 he was at the International Telephone and Telegraph Facility in Paramus, N.J., working on the design and development of 465L, the automated SAC command and control system. From 1963 to 1965 he was at Headquarters SAC working on implementation of that system. In 1965 he entered the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
General Burkett was transferred to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in July 1966, and served as a branch chief and chief of the Computer Applications Group, in the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, Studies and Analysis. In July 1970 he was assigned to the Office of the Comptroller of the Air Force in the Directorate of Data Automation where he served successively as chief of the Data Systems-Equipment Division, and as deputy director. In June 1972 he was named director of Management Analysis, with responsibilities for providing policy and technical guidance for management cost and economic analysis Air Force-wide.
General Burkett was assigned as deputy commander of the Army-Air Force Exchange Service at Dallas, Texas, in April 1973. He become commander of the Air Force Commissary Service April 1, 1976, and assumed the additional function of deputy commander, Air Force Engineering and Services Agency April 7, 1977.
He is rated as a senior navigator and command pilot. His military decorations and awards include the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, Air Force Commendation Medal and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award.
He was promoted to the grade of major general on Feb. 6, 1976, with date of rank June 9, 1973.
(Current as of February 1978)