Elliott V. Converse, III

Elliott V. Converse III is a retired Air Force colonel with a doctorate in history from Princeton University. His career included assignments as a faculty member at the US Air Force Academy and the Air War College, as an air intelligence officer in Southeast Asia, as a strategic planner with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and as commander of the Air Force Historical Research Agency, Maxwell AFB. After retiring from the Air Force, Dr. Converse taught history at Reinhardt College, Waleska, Georgia, and again at the Air Force Academy. He is currently the lead historian on a project sponsored by the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the military services to write a history of the acquisition of major weapon systems by the armed forces since World War II. His volume in the series will cover the years 1945–1958. Dr. Converse is also the principal author of The Exclusion of Black Soldiers from the Medal of Honor in World War II (1997) and editor of Forging the Sword: Selecting, Educating, and Training Cadets and Junior Officers in the Modern World (1998).

[from page ix of Circling the Earth, published in 2005]