Retired Maj. Gen. Harold H. Bassett died Oct. 4 in San Antonio at age 100. Born in 1907 in Albion, Ill., Basset graduated from West Point in 1929. In the Army Air Corps, he commanded one of the first weather squadrons under the newly formed Air Weather Service in 1937. He was a pilot in the first mass flight of the bombers from the mainland to Hawaii, for which he received a Distinguished Flying Cross. He served in the Weather Service in Washington and Europe during World War II and on the joint staff following the war. He became commander of the Air Force Security Service in 1953 and the Taiwan Defense Command in 1957. He took command of AWS in 1958 and retired a year later.
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
