Winner of the 1959 General Prize Essay Contest of the U. S. Naval Institute, Commander Backus is Executive Secretary of the Navy Ballistic Missile Committee and Head of the Ballistic Missile Branch, office of the Chief of Naval Operations. Graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in the Class of 1941, he survived the attack on the Oklahoma at Pearl Harbor and served through much of World War II in the South Dakota. He was commanding officer of the Isherwood (DD-520), 1952-54, and Assistant Naval Attaché, London, 1954-56.
