Charles E. Richardson was assigned as Deputy Commander of the Ballistic Missile Defense Systems Command on 10 Oct 75.
Prior to this new assignment, Richardson served as Chief Engineer for the Command. Richardson is a veteran of the Ballistic Missile Defense Program. He started with the NIKE AJAX program in 1952 as an engineer. In 1956 he became NIKE HERCULES Project Manager for the Industrial Division, Army Rocket and Guided Missile Agency (ARGMA).
In 1958, Richardson was assigned to the NIKE ZEUS Project Office in the Research and Development Division, ARGMA. Next he was assigned to the NIKE-X Project Office as Chief, Test and Range Operations Division in 1962.
As the BMD program advanced, Richardson moved to the position of Chief Engineer of the NIKE-X Project Office in 1965.
Though the names changed from NIKE-X to SENTINEL to SAFEGUARD and finally to the Ballistic Missile Defense Systems Command, Richardson continued as Chief Engineer until his present assignment as Deputy Commander.
A native of Aliceville, Alabama, Richardson graduated from Aliceville High School in 1943. He attended Georgia Tech for a year and then entered the U.S. Navy. Following his discharge from the Navy, Richardson entered Auburn University in 1946. He received his BS degree in Electrical Engineering in 1949. After receiving his degree, Richardson joined Southern Bell Telephone Co. as an engineer and was assigned to Birmingham and Decatur areas. In 1951 he formed the firm of Burns and Richardson, Consulting Engineers, in Columbus, Mississippi and stayed there a year.
His civil service career started in 1952 when he was employed as an engineer with the Ordnance Missile Laboratories at Redstone Arsenal, Alabama. He attended the Graduate School of Business Administration at Harvard in 1965.
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