Jan 14 2009
Obama Picks Air Force General as NASA Head
President-elect Barack Obama’s made his pick for NASA head — a decorated military man, according to several reports.
New NASA Head
Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Jonathan Scott Gration, who uses his middle name, is a career Air Force man who’s logged nearly 1,000 hours of combat flight time and been awarded the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star and the Distinguished Service Medal, among many other awards.
The son of missionaries, he was raised in Africa and speaks Swahili.
Reports said an official announcement would be forthcoming Wednesday. The Obama transition team refused FoxNews.com’s requests to comment on the reports.
Gration is especially close to Obama, having met the young senator in 2005. He and Obama traveled to Africa together in 2006, and Gration has since been one of Obama’s unofficial national-security advisors.
However, unlike current NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, a rocket scientists, Gration has little space experience other than working as a White House fellow in 1982 for then-NASA Deputy Administrator Hans Mark.
Read the rest at-http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,479889,00.html
