Major General Arthur Sweeny
11th White Sands Missile Range Commander
01 June 1972 – 21 July 1974
Major General Arthur H. Sweeney, the 11th Commander of White Sands Missile Range, was born in Charleston, West Virginia on 09 November 1920 and graduated from Parkersburg High School, Parkersburg, West Virginia, in 1938. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was commissioned a Second lieutenant in the Ordnance Corps upon graduation on 27 April 1942.
Following assignments at Picatinny Arsenal, New Jersey, in the Southwest Pacific area at various locations in New Guinea and the Philippines, and Washington, DC, General Sweeney, then a Captain, reverted to inactive status. While attending the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1947, General Sweeney was commissioned a First Lieutenant in the Regular Army with temporary rank of Captain.
Following his graduation with a Master’s in Business Administration, he served in several interim assignments, including training in industry with the DuPont Corporation and as an instructor at The Ordnance School. Between 1950 and 1952, he served in the Management Office, Office of the Chief of Ordnance. In October 1953, he was named Assistant Military Attache in Berne, Switzerland, remaining there until his as assignment in July 1956 to the US Army Ballistics Missile Agency, Huntsville, Alabama. In his capacity as Assistant Director, Industrial Operation Division, General Sweeney (then Major) worked in planning the production of Redstone and Jupiter ballistic missile systems.
In July 1958, following his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel, he assumed command of the 701st Ordnance Battalion, 1st Infantry Division, and remained in that capacity until his assignment in January 1961 as Chief of the Ordnance Section, Military Advisory and Assistance Group, Cambodia.
Upon returning to the U.S. from Cambodia in April 1963, he was designated a military member of the US Arms Control and Disarmament Agency where his work included planning the first US inspection of international bases in the Antarctic and research in inspection methods applicable to International Arms Control Agreement. In September 1965, following his graduation from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and promotion to Colonel, he assumed command of Springfield Armory, Massachusetts, and remained there until his assignment on 01 November 1967, as Commander, Watervliet Arsenal, New York.
In September 1968, following his nomination for promotion to Brigadier General, he was assigned as the Deputy Commander of the US Army Weapons Command, Rock Island, Illinois. Following nomination for promotion to Major General in May 1970, he assumed command of the US Army Support Command in Qui Nhon, Vietnam. In November 1970, General Sweeney was reassigned as the Commanding General of the US Army Support Command, Da Nang, where he remained until phase out of that command in April 1972. He returned to the continental United States in May 1972 and assumed duties as Commanding General, White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
General Sweeney is also a graduate of the US Army Command and General Staff College, The Ordnance School, the Strategic Intelligence School, and the Army Language School. General Sweeney has been the recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Air Medal, the Joint Services Commendation Medal, and the Army Commendation Medal with two Oak Leaf Clusters. His foreign awards include the National Order of Vietnam, the Army Distinguished Service Order (Vietnam) and the Order of Military Merit (Korea).
He was married to the former Veronica Donovan of Sidney, Australia.