Ken White
Kenneth W. White
Kenneth W. White was born at Ladd Field, Fairbanks, Alaska; the son of Major Maynard and Elizabeth White, on March 28, 1947. He attended schools throughout the United States and in England, graduating from McLean High School in Virginia in 1965, and from the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, in 1970.
In 1973, Ken spent two tours of duty flying out of Guam and U-Tapao, Thailand during the Vietnam Conflict. Upon return from Southeast Asia in 1974, Ken upgraded to B-52H Aircraft Commander. In 1975, he became a controller in Minot's SAC Command Post, soon becoming the Senior Aircraft Controller.
After his retirement from the Air Force, Ken wrote a letter to President George Bush (Sr.), suggesting that American volunteers be sent to emerging democracies and formerly communist countries to teach them the fundamentals of democratic/free-enterprise systems. Within a month, the President announced the formation of the Citizens Democracy Corps (CDC), with the same aims as those outlined in Ken’s letter. Within a few short years, the CDC had succeeded in making an indelible imprint on our nation’s foreign policy worldwide; having trained hundreds of people from foreign lands both in the United States and abroad in fields ranging from agriculture, to building infrastructure, to running governments.
Ken’s first book, "World in Peril," significantly referring to the state of the world at the beginning of the Cold War, was about the achievements of the 46th Reconnaissance Squadron, the first operational B-29 unit in the then-infant Strategic Air Command (SAC), which was commanded by Ken’s father, the late Maynard E. White, and which was formed to assess the Soviet threat in the Arctic. In order to do so, they developed what is now universally known as the Grid System of Navigation, which enabled SAC to become the global deterrent force that kept the peace throughout the Cold War; preventing a third world war, and possibly a new Dark Age. The unit’s scientific findings remain today on the cutting edge of geophysics and portend a potential global cataclysm, possibly within the near future.
Ken’s second book, "Evolution of a Spirit; One Man’s Journey," is primarily of poetry about faith, marriage, divorce, fatherhood, and various other topics. It also chronicles Ken’s “recuperation” from combat-related PTSD, incurred during the Vietnam Conflict. This book details Ken’s spiritual awakening and growth “from death into Life.”
Ken’s latest book, titled "We Wore Sterling Wings," is the story of his father’s remarkable careers from his Air Corps days through his experiences as a Director in NASA during the exciting, early lunar-landing phase of the Apollo Program. A part of the book’s story is about how his father assembled the military computer systems and networks that gave the United States the technological edge that helped our nation win the Cold War, (and which led to the Internet).
Ken currently is enjoying life in Northern Virginia, and looks forward to starting his next project.
