Colonel Charles F. Strang is Chief, Missile and Space Safety Division, Directorate of Aerospace Safety, Deputy Inspector General for Inspection and Safety, Headquarters, United States Air Force. In this and prior assignments, Colonel Strang has obtained extensive experience in aircraft and missile accident investigation. He was alternate President of the Air Force Board which investigated the Titan II Missile Accident of August 1965 at Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas.

Colonel Strang entered the United States Air Force in January 1940. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in March 1943 after graduation from Officer Candidate School, Miami Beach, Florida. He has served in various staff and management positions in the fields of aircraft and missile maintenance engineering and material. These assignments included: Chief of Maintenance, 7th Bombardment Wing, Carswell Air Force Base, Texas; Director of Material, 72nd Bombardment Wing, Ramey Air Force Base, Puerto Rico; Deputy Director of Weapon Sytems, Headquarters, 13th Strategic Missile Division, Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Chief of Weapons Maintenance Mangement, Directorate of Material, Headquarters, Strategic Air Command, Omaha, Nebraska.

Colonel Strang has been awarded the Legion of Merit, the Air Force Commendation Medal with Oakleaf Cluster, the Army Commendation Medal and other Service Medals. He has served in South America, Puerto Rico and Europe.

Colonel Strang was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1918. He completed high school at Havertown, Pennsylvania and attended Texas Christian and Florida State Universities. In 1956, he graduated from the Air Force Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. He is a 1965 graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Washington, D.C.

Colonel Strang is married to the former Mildred Irene Wells of Benton, Illinois. They have two daughters and a son. Daughter Charlene is married to Mr. R. James Mitchell of Lincoln, Nebraska. Their son, Charles II, who attends San Bernardino College, and daughter, Karen Sue, reside with the Colonel and Mrs. Strang in Redlands, California.

Updated February 3, 2003
Steve Garber, NASA History Web Curator
For further information E-mail histinfo@hq.nasa.gov