Institute for Strategic and Innovative Technologies

ISIT theme scaffold is active.

Lt Gen. Abrahamson was formerly one of the DoD’s most broadly experienced and successful military program managers.  He won a series of military and association awards for his management of the Maverick missile program, the F-16 Multinational Fighter program, the Space Shuttle Program for NASA and for his management of President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). He has maintained a major public presence for all of his programs – with speeches, public events, and discussions with senior political and diplomatic government officials around the world.  From 1985 to 1988 he testified before Congress more than any other Department of Defense official.

He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering) and obtained his Master of Science degree at the University of Oklahoma (Aerospace Engineering). His military schools included Outstanding Graduate of the AF Squadron Officer’s Course, Outstanding Graduate of the AF Command and Staff College, correspondence course graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.  He excelled in Flight Training, and was “Top gun (Outstanding Student in Fighter Pilot School in the F-100), and Graduate of the AF Research Pilot (Test Pilot) School at Edwards AFB.

He served as a fighter pilot in Vietnam and later as an Air Force Test Pilot. He was selected to be an Astronaut and trained for a highly classified Air Force manned space project, the Air Force Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) program, which was cancelled by President Nixon.  At that point, he was too old for the NASA astronaut program, so he did not get to fly in space. He then served as a staff officer in the Executive Office of the President of the United States, and later in key Air Force staff positions.  And while he flew as a test pilot in all of his programs (except the Space Shuttle program), his primary military career was in scientific and engineering program management.  He has over 3,500 hours of flying in a wide variety of military fighter and trainer aircraft, including some time in large military transport aircraft and in civil aircraft. He flew F-100 fighters in combat in Vietnam in 1964 and 1965.