Air Force General to Speak at LDS Church

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints cordially invites the public to attend an inspirational evening with General Bruce A. Carlson, the current director of the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office.  He will speak Sunday, July 18, starting at 7 p.m. at the church located at 1399 Courthouse Road in Stafford.

In April of 2009, Bruce Carlson was called by church leaders in Salt Lake City to serve as a member of the Quorum of Seventy.  The Seventy are called to serve as special witnesses for Jesus Christ and are given the title of Elder.

General Carlson received a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Minnesota, Duluth, in 1971, graduated from U.S. Air Force Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, in 1979, and earned a distinguished graduate master of arts degree from U.S. Naval War College in 1989. He was appointed the 17th Director of the National Reconnaissance Office on June 12, 2009.  Prior to his appointment, he spent 37 years in the U.S. military, rising to the rank of four-star general in the Air Force.  During his time in the Air Force he commanded the Air Force’s first stealth fighter wing and held several senior staff positions at the Pentagon.

He was born October 3, 1949, in Hibbing, Minnesota, to Clifford and Helen Carlson. He spent most of his childhood moving throughout the northern half of the state as his father was promoted within the Minnesota Forestry Department. When the family moved to Brainerd, Minnesota, Helen Carlson (who had been baptized into the Latter-day Saints faith in her youth) was able to take her children to a small branch of the Church that met nearby. Bruce and his wife, Vicki, have three children and nine grandchildren.

For more about him, see:http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/57459/Defender-of-the-faith.html and http://www.nro.gov/carlson-bio.html