http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1218356129318590.xml&coll...

Birmingham, Alabama native retiring as missile defense agency chief
Director put together plan to shoot down spy satellite
Sunday, August 10, 2008
KENT FAULK
News staff writer

About a week before Christmas last year, Missile Defense Agency
Director Lt. Gen. Henry A. "Trey" Obering III got a call from the
National Reconnaissance Office director. The NRO director asked
Obering to go to a secure phone line.

The office needed help with a problem. One of its spy satellites was
out of control and it had 1,000 pounds of toxic fuel in a tank NRO
officials thought would survive re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
Officials with the spy agency thought the fuel would kill people even
if it landed in a sparsely populated area, Obering said.

With the help of Missile Defense Agency workers, many of them in
Huntsville, the general put together a plan to shoot down the
satellite with a missile interceptor from a ship.

http://www.stratcom.mil/Spch&test/CC%%20MilSpace%%20speech%%206May08.html

[USSTRATCOM Commander] General Chilton's speech at MilSpace Conference
in Paris
May 6, 2008

[snip]

Just how important is this human resource I’m talking about as opposed
to the launch vehicle or the satellite? At the end of the day I think
it’s the ultimate and most vital element of the space program. I’ll
give you an example where this was highlighted to me particularly this
year.

Actually the story begins back in December of last year when I met Dr.
Scott Large, the Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, at a
meeting we were having down in Florida. We were just chatting...