[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 118 (Friday, August 3, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       HONORING PEDRO LUIS RUSTAN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. MIKE ROGERS

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, August 2, 2012

  Mr. ROGERS of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a true 
American Hero, a man whose focus, drive, intellect and leadership were 
responsible for spawning innovative systems that have saved lives and 
ensured the security of our great nation.
   Pedro Luis Rustan, known as ``Pete'' to all within the Intelligence 
Community, was an extraordinary American. His passing leaves a void 
within the Intelligence Community and for all his family and friends.
   Pete may not have appreciated my remarks because he was never 
concerned about who received the credit, only that the job was done. 
However, he was a man who was grateful for the gifts that God gave him 
and he could think of no greater use for these gifts than service of 
the Nation that had blessed him and his family with freedom.
   Pete was born in 1946 in a small city 40 miles from the U.S. naval 
base at Guantanamo Bay. In August 1967, he made a dramatic escape from 
Communist Cuba with his father, two sisters, and brother-in-law. They 
fled to a railway, climbed inside a railroad boxcar and jumped from the 
moving train as it approached the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo. Pete 
and his family swam and waded through a snake-infested swamp before 
reaching multiple tall security fences topped with barbed wire. Pete 
carried his younger sister on his back over the fences. After being 
picked up by a Navy patrol craft they sought and received political 
asylum.
   In the early 1970s Pete studied electrical engineering at the 
Illinois Institute of Technology, and was quickly drafted into the Air 
Force. In the Air Force he served first as an enlisted man, and then 
successfully completed Officer Candidate School, becoming a U.S. Air 
Force officer. He eventually went on to graduate school at the 
University of Florida, from which he received a doctorate in electrical 
engineering in 1979.
   During his 26-year career with the U.S. Air Force, Pete ran several 
advanced technology space programs and was mission manager for a joint 
NASA--Defense Department project, the Clementine mission, a small, low-
cost spacecraft that made history by mapping the surface of the Moon 
and discovering ice at its south pole. Daniel Golden, a former NASA 
director, said that Pete always ``seemed to take on things that were 
impossible.'' He retired from the Air Force in 1997 with the rank of 
colonel but continued to deliver intelligence systems that accomplished 
the seemingly impossible with National Security technical systems.
   After retiring from the Air Force, Pete consulted on commercial 
space ventures and for federal intelligence agencies. He was on an 
advisory board that recommended changes at the National Security 
Agency, one of the country's largest intelligence agencies. As Michael 
V. Hayden, a former director of the National Security Agency said of 
Pete, ''He was hands-down the most valuable member of that board. He 
was creative. He was energetic. He was candid without ever being 
caustic or unkind.''
   After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Pete returned to the 
government, leading research efforts in satellite reconnaissance for 
the Defense and Intelligence Communities. He held numerous positions at 
the National Reconnaissance Organization, NRO, including Director of 
the Advanced Systems and Technology Directorate, Director of the Ground 
Enterprise Directorate, Director of Small Satellite Development and 
most recently, Director of the NRO's Mission Support Directorate. He 
retired from the NRO officially in October 2011. In each instance he 
enhanced the capability of the organization and demonstrated his well 
earned reputation as a technical innovator and advocate of streamlined 
acquisition principles in space programs. He was a true asset to the 
NRO and to our country.
   Pete contributed to improving the world outside of work as well. He 
personally led missions to a small impoverished town in Honduras where 
he provided shoes, developed aqueducts and tilapia fish farms. In his 
private and personal life he also was one who accomplished the 
seemingly impossible.
   On June 28, Pedro ``Pete'' Rustan lost his battle with cancer but 
won his eternal reward after 65 vibrant years, passing away at his home 
in Woodbridge, Virginia. He is survived by his wife, Alexandra, and 
children, Peter and Amy. He leaves behind a legacy of intelligence 
systems and people whom he mentored to continue to achieve the 
seemingly impossible in his memory. He will be greatly missed in the 
Intelligence Community and by the House Permanent Select Committee on 
Intelligence.

                          ____________________