Daniel Callahan; Headed U.S. Logistics During Missile Crisis

Maj. Gen. Daniel Callahan, 91, logistics director for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Cuban missile crisis, died Sunday in Nashville.

Callahan served with the Joint Chiefs for two years, overseeing the positioning of personnel and equipment during the crisis in 1962. After the Soviet Union prepared sites in Cuba for nuclear missiles aimed toward the United States, President John F. Kennedy blocked access to Cuba of ships carrying the missiles and forced removal of the sites. The crisis had the potential of touching off nuclear war between the two superpowers.

Callahan retired from the Air Force in 1963 and five years later joined the National Aeronautics and Space Administration at the Kennedy Space Center as deputy director of administration. He was in that position in 1969 when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Callahan retired from the space agency in 1973.