Passing of a Destroyer Leader

Rear Admiral George R Meinig, Jr, USN (Ret)

RADM George R Meinig Obituary

We have lost another true hero of AEGIS BMD — RADM George Meinig has cast lines ashore on his final voyage.

RADM George Meinig, Jr.

I probably first encountered RADM Meinig shortly after 9/11/2001, when I joined the small Navy Theater Wide Program office.

George was a member of the Navy Theater Wide (NTW) Senior Advisory Team (SAT), headed by RADM Meyer.  The SAT was an assemblage of gurus probably never equalled in their knowledge of Navy Weapons and Missile Systems – RADMs Meyer and Meinig, George Threston, Milt Silvera, Jim Whalen, Capt Fritz Wendt, Marion Oliver, among others.

This was not a pontificating group (well, on occasion, esp FOA), but a group that would proactively identify weakness in the program, then roll up sleeves and get to work on corrective action, working directly with industry, labs, HQ, or the front office as needed.  

We had a term in AEGIS BMD – Blue Collar Captains – senior officer knowledge •and experience combined with a junior officer roll up your sleeves and solve the problem while not worried about getting dirty approach.  The SAT did not have exclusive claim to the Blue Collar Captain title, we had other examples in Anteon and BecTech.

While an Admiral by rank, George was a true Blue Collar Captain.  He helped tackle some of the knarly technical and organizational challenges facing the program.

Hard to remember now, but late 2002 into 2003 was a time of program turmoil:
— The Aegis Project was being disassembled, 
— Missile Defense was gaining priority, eventually with a Presidential Directive to deploy by 9/30/04.  
— The NTW Program Manager had departed for a headquarters position, leaving the program in the hands of an untested1, acting Technical Director.
— We had a new Program Director inbound.
— Program personnel were flux, not knowing if we were NavSea or BMDO / MDA,2 going to be retained in the program, promoted, or put in the NavSea Placement Program.
— NavSea was stuck in a hiring freeze, even downsizing, with a directed personnel placement program, when we desperately needed more folks to achieve the deployment date.
— In Feb 2003, we were redirected from an “engagement” initial capability (with SM-3) to a LRST initial capability, supporting GMD, a completely new type mission area, starting with a blank white board.
—  Mostly forgotten now was that NTW was envisioned as a mere gap filler, intended to be replaced after a production run of 12 (or maybe 24) missiles by the Kinetic Energy Interceptor.  KEI was, like most PowerPoint programs, a “perfect” program, untarnished by any real data, and AEGIS BMD was under continuous attack by the KEI PM.
— the list goes on …

George was an anchor though this chaos.  In particular, he helped focus leadership on the battles that really mattered in achieving the 9/30/04 deployment directive, while building a program office on the fly, also deftly switching focus to the latest technical challenge when required3.  The fact that AEGIS BMD survived the chaos, deploying on schedule, then becoming the ascendant BMD capability, with an enviable test success record, was in no small part to his help keeping leadership focused.

In 2012, RADM Meinig was recognized as an AEGIS BMD Pathfinder

The AEGIS BMD Pathfinder Award honors the contributions made to the nation’s defense by persons instrumental in the acquisition or operationalization of naval ballistic missile defense systems

In Oct 2019, the new CSED annex at Moorestown was named in his honor:

RADM George R. Meinig, Jr.
Integrated Air and Missile Defense Engineering Center

As our program YNCS, retired, observed, it is going to make quite an acronym. I think that was also the impetus for the last loonie-gram4.

RADM Meinig at the CSED Dedication with two other AEGIS BMD heroes – Jack Ransbotham (2nd from right), Bob Reichert (right)

Personally, George was an anchor for me.  He spent a lot of time listening, mentoring, and doing his best to keep me out of trouble – a typically doomed effort. On the most difficult day of my Naval Career, he stood with me, along with three others.  (Been 20+ years, so I am finally trying to write the story – stay tuned.)

We have seen our AEGIS BMD Destroyers in the news frequently in the last few years, starting with Arleigh Burke’s first successful operational use of AEGIS BMD / SM-3, continuing through ongoing Middle East Events.  George had a huge hand in the success of the AEGIS Weapon System, the Destroyer, and the SM-3.  Our Sailors are relying on his contributions, even if they do not know his name. And for those keeping a complete record, his contributions also included the Phalanx systems, RAM, and SeaSparrow, among others.

We have lost a giant, one whose contributions to AEGIS BMD are not easy to summarize, and even less easy to overstate.

RADM Meinig Biography ca 2012 Pathfinder Award

  1. i.e, exactly zero relevant program office experience. No one in their right mind should have left this knuckle-head in charge. And not the last time this happened – see $183M in the hole and counting ↩︎
  2. As ADM Rickover learned, having two hats turned out useful, no one know which one you are wearing. Became one of the contributors to AEGIS BMD Success ↩︎
  3. The one written SAT missive from RADM Meinig I was able to find on short notice was to the incoming Program Director, ca Feb 2003, before they transferred their flag to AEGIS BMD, laying out the challenges facing the program, and endorsing the untested, acting TD, in place of changing leadership. I am afraid most of his numerous missives are irretrievable on the old outlook PST files that defy current efforts to decode. At least I had printed one.  ↩︎
  4. IAMD and the Barbarians at the Gate ↩︎