Eugene Raymond Sullivan (born August 2, 1941) is an American lawyer, former United States Army officer, and senior judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces. A graduate of the United States Military Academy, Sullivan served on active duty in the Army from 1964 to 1969, including service with the 4th Infantry Division in Vietnam. His military decorations include the Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal.

After graduating from Georgetown University Law Center, Sullivan served on President Richard Nixon's defense team during the Watergate scandal. He later worked as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice, served as general counsel of the United States Department of the Air Force, and served as chief legal adviser to the National Reconnaissance Office. He was also governor of Wake Island from 1984 to 1986.

President Ronald Reagan nominated Sullivan to the U.S. Court of Military Appeals on February 25, 1986. The United States Senate confirmed him on May 20, and he assumed office on May 27. President George H. W. Bush named Sullivan chief judge effective October 1, 1990, a position he held for five years. He is currently listed by the court as a senior judge. In 2010, Sullivan was inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame. A tribute to his service was read into the Congressional Record on June 5, 2002.

Early life and education

Sullivan was born on August 2, 1941, in St. Louis, Missouri. He graduated from St. Louis University High School in 1959. Sullivan later attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1964. While at West Point, he was a member of the Cadet Honor Committee and the varsity lacrosse team.

During this period, West Point's Honor Code was administered by the Corps of Cadets and carried significant consequences. A May 24, 1960, letter from the Cadet Honor Committee to incoming West Point candidates stated that the sole penalty for a violation of the Honor Code was separation from the Academy. In a 2000 interview with Assembly, Sullivan said that serving as an Honor Representative fostered his concern for justice and, later, his appreciation for individual rights, helping lead him toward a legal career.

Sullivan returned to issues involving the West Point honor system later in his career. In 1988 and 1989, he served on a federal commission reviewing the West Point Honor Code. He later became a trustee emeritus and founding chair of the Ethics Committee of the West Point Association of Graduates. He also served on the Board of Directors of the Duke University School of Law Center on Law, Ethics and National Security when the center was established in 1993.

Military service

Following his graduation from West Point with a B.S. degree in 1964, Sullivan served in the United States Army for five years. He qualified as a tanker, an Airborne Ranger, a Ranger instructor, and a jumpmaster. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Air Medal, and other decorations for his service in Vietnam.

Lieutenant Sullivan completed Airborne and Ranger schools before being assigned to Germany as a tank platoon commander. He later served as the battalion scout platoon leader in the 2nd Battalion, 33rd Armor Regiment. After his tour in Germany, he was posted to Fort Benning, where he served as a Ranger instructor at Ranger School.

From Fort Benning, Sullivan was assigned to the Army Aviation Systems Command (AVSCOM), where he worked on research and development assignments. His work included the T53 and T55 engines used in the UH-1 and CH-47 helicopters. His military decorations also included the Army Commendation Medal.

Captain Sullivan was then assigned in Vietnam to the 2d Squadron, 1st Armored Cavalry, attached to the 4th Infantry Division in the Central Highlands. After about six months, he was detailed to Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) headquarters in Saigon as an aide to MACV Science Advisor Nils F. Wikner. In a 2000 interview, Sullivan recalled that the Science Advisor's office oversaw the introduction of scientific equipment and weapons systems, including surveillance devices used on the Ho Chi Minh trail.

One of the projects Sullivan worked on in this assignment was the covert monitoring operation known as Operation Igloo White. Sullivan also traveled several times to Nakhon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base in Thailand. On another project, drawing on his Ranger School experience with demolitions, he served as the principal adviser on a study of methods to prevent Viet Cong sappers from destroying bridges around Saigon.

While working full time in the Science Advisor's Office, Sullivan also volunteered to serve as an M60 door gunner on an attack helicopter flying night patrols along the Saigon River. He later recalled completing more than 25 combat missions in that role. His Vietnam decorations included the Air Medal and Bronze Star Medal.

After leaving active duty, Sullivan later served in the U.S. Army Reserve. In his 2000 Assembly interview, he stated that he had reached the rank of lieutenant colonel by the time he was appointed to the federal bench in 1986.

In 2006, Sullivan was selected as a distinguished member of the Ranger Training Brigade.

Legal education and career

After leaving the Army, Sullivan earned his Juris Doctor from Georgetown University Law Center in 1971. During his final year, he served as an editor of the Georgetown Law Journal.

Following law school, Sullivan clerked for Chief Judge Marion Charles Matthes of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. When his clerkship ended in 1972, he joined the Washington, D.C., law firm of Patton Boggs, now Squire Patton Boggs. He worked primarily with senior partner Tommy Boggs and assisted him in lobbying Congress and federal agencies on behalf of major corporations and foreign governments. Sullivan is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and Missouri.

Watergate scandal

In early 1974, Sullivan joined the White House legal team led by James D. St. Clair, President Richard Nixon's special counsel during the Watergate scandal. Sullivan later recalled that a personal connection led to an interview with St. Clair, who was recruiting young lawyers for the defense team, and that St. Clair hired him two days after they met.

Sullivan worked on the president's defense during the congressional impeachment proceedings and in related Watergate litigation before Judge John J. Sirica in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Sullivan and fellow West Point graduate Mac Howard, who later also became a federal judge, were members of St. Clair's staff. They were the primary representatives for the president observing the impeachment hearings before the House of Representatives.

When the case reached the Supreme Court, Sullivan was listed among the attorneys for the President on the July 1, 1974 reply brief. Sullivan later said that Professor Charles Alan Wright, who was overseeing preparation of the White House reply brief, chose him as one of a small group of lawyers to help write it. Sullivan was assigned the portion dealing with Rule 17 and the scope of the subpoena served on President Nixon for the Watergate tapes.

U.S. Department of Justice trial attorney (1974–1982)

After Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, Sullivan left the White House and joined the United States Department of Justice as a nonpolitical trial attorney, a position he held for eight years. Sullivan also volunteered to serve as a federal prosecutor to gain experience trying criminal cases before juries. As a prosecutor, he served as co-counsel in felony drug and gun cases in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., obtaining convictions in those cases.

General counsel of National Reconnaissance Office

In 1982, after becoming deputy general counsel of the U.S. Department of the Air Force, Sullivan also became general counsel of the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), serving in that position concurrently with his Air Force duties until 1986. At the time, the NRO was a covert U.S. intelligence agency responsible for satellite reconnaissance. In a 2000 interview, Sullivan described his NRO work as part of the highly classified "black" world and said that he served as chief legal adviser to the then-secret satellite intelligence agency.

Sullivan's position as NRO general counsel was not known to Air Force leadership or even to his wife while he held the post. His duties included legal oversight of contracts involving cover companies and security matters intended to protect the secrecy of NRO operations, and his work brought him into frequent contact with Stanley Sporkin, then general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency. Sporkin and Sullivan were both later appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan.

The existence of the NRO remained classified throughout Sullivan's tenure. The Department of Defense publicly acknowledged the agency on September 18, 1992.

One significant issue during Sullivan's tenure concerned NRO Director Edward "Pete" Aldridge's decision to preserve expendable launch vehicles rather than rely exclusively on the Space Shuttle for national-security launches. Sullivan was consulted on the decision. Aldridge later recalled that in 1983 he recommended continuing production of expendable launch vehicles until the Shuttle had demonstrated that it could reliably meet Department of Defense requirements. Official NRO histories credit Aldridge's efforts with helping to keep the Titan production line operating.

After the Challenger disaster in January 1986, Shuttle operations were suspended, demonstrating the importance of retaining an alternative launch capability for national-security satellites.

14th general counsel of the U.S. Air Force

Sullivan became acting general counsel of the U.S. Department of the Air Force on March 2, 1984, and general counsel on March 12, serving in that position until May 26, 1986. In a 2000 interview, Sullivan recalled that after joining the Pentagon he was selected first as deputy general counsel and later as general counsel of the Air Force. As general counsel, he served as the Air Force's chief legal officer and chief ethics official.

Space law was one of the areas addressed during Sullivan's tenure. By the early 1980s, the Air Force General Counsel and the Judge Advocate General were sponsoring the biennial Conference on the Law Relating to National Security Activities in Outer Space. Sullivan chaired a three-day classified conference in Colorado Springs attended by invited representatives of the Air Force, CIA, NRO, and Department of State, and persuaded Professor Carl Sagan to serve without compensation as the keynote speaker at the conference dinner at Peterson Air Force Base.

Another issue during Sullivan's tenure involved the Global Positioning System (GPS). In 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced that GPS would be made available for civilian use once the system became operational. Sullivan worked on legal questions arising from civilian use of GPS, including potential government liability for accidents attributed to GPS malfunctions.

Sullivan's service as Air Force general counsel ended on May 26, 1986. The following day, he took the oath of office as a judge of the United States Court of Military Appeals.

Governor of Wake Island

In addition, from 1984 to 1986, Sullivan served as the governor of Wake Island, a small strategic island approximately midway between Hawaii and Japan that is a U.S. territory. Wake Island was important in the 1930s and 1940s as a trans-Pacific aviation stop and military base. The Japanese captured the island in December 1941 during the Battle of Wake Island and occupied it until Japan's surrender in 1945, when Wake returned to U.S. control.