Coffin, Robert E. (Robert Edmondston), 1917-

Lieutenant General Robert E. Coffin was a United States (U.S.) Army officer who graduated from Stanford University in 1939, and was commissioned in the field artillery from the Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program. He served in Sicily with Seventh (7th) Army (1943); was chief of the Soviet Branch, War Department General Staff Intelligence Division (1945-1948); commanded an artillery battalion in Korea (1953); successively as chief, Research Division, Nuclear Division, and Missiles and Space Division, Army Research and Development (1957-1959); involved with the launch of Jupiter-C, the first United States satellite; commanded a missile task force, Italy (1963); was assistant division commander, 2nd Infantry Division, Fort Benning, Georgia, where he worked in the tests of the air assault concepts based on large-scale use of helicopters (1963); was chief of Nuclear Activities Branch, SHAPE (1965); Deputy Chief of Army Research and Development (1967); commanding general, SETAF, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Nuclear Force, Italy (1970); and was Deputy Director of Defense Research and Engineering (Acquisition Management), Office of the Secretary of Defense (1971-1974) until his military retirement on 30 April 1974.