Address to Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Graduates, 1982 Sept.

The collection consists of speeches, addresses, remarks, and interview responses written by Dr. Leo Finkelstein, Jr., and delivered by the leaders of Air Force Logistics Command (AFLC), headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. At the time, Finkelstein, then a Major in the U.S. Air Force, was serving as Special Assistant to the AFLC Commander, General James P. Mullins.

Most of the speeches were written for, and in collaboration with, General Mullins. A few items were written for other AFLC personnel, including several for Lt. Gen. Earl T. O’Loughlin, as well as Maj. Gen. William J. Kelly, Lt. Gen. Richard E. Merkling, and Chief Rogers. The speeches were delivered at a variety of events and functions nationwide, and written remarks were published in periodicals such as LOGNEWS and the Skywriter.

Topics of the speeches and remarks include logistics, national defense and security, nuclear weapons, parts pricing, the military-industrial complex, reliability, Cold War, and others.

Also included in the collection are the AFLC annual reports for fiscal years 1982 and 1983, along with preparatory materials.

In addition to the speeches and publications themselves, the collection includes earlier drafts of the speeches, with related memos, comments, and notes, to enable the researcher to better understand how this process of ghost-writing worked.

All materials in the collection date from 1981 to 1984, from the time that General Mullins took command of AFLC in July 1981 until his retirement in November 1984.