Richard L. Bernard

Richard L. Bernard is an NSA retired Senior Executive. He was Director of DEFSMAC from 1980 to 1983. He was awarded the NSA Meritorious Civilian Service Award for his performance in that position.

Mr. Bernard was first assigned to NSA as a computer maintenance supervisor in 1953 while serving as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. In 1955 he was sponsored for a year of study at George Washington University to complete his Master of Engineering Management degree in 1956.

His NSA assignments included several positions in the Research and Engineering organization; Project Manager in the Office of Special Program Management; Chief of the Office of Space, Microwave, and Mobile Systems; and Deputy Group Chief for the Line-of-Sight Systems Group.

In 1985 he retired from NSA as a Senior Cryptologic Executive Manager and became an Engineering Program Manager in industry until 1995. He then returned to NSA as a part-time consultant and volunteer for the Center for Cryptologic History. He also serves as the DEFSMAC historian.

In 2009 he completed an unclassified brochure on NSA ELINT history from 1950 to 1990 for use by the National Cryptologic Museum and presented the results at the Center for Cryptology History Symposium in 2009. He recently completed this brief history of DEFSMAC from 1960 to 2010 and presented the information at the 2011 Center for Cryptologic History Symposium.

[from page 14 of In the Forefront of Foreign Missile and Space Intelligence, published 2012]