Early career and Senate ascent
World War II C-46 pilot Ted Stevens earned the Distinguished Flying Cross before a Harvard Law degree led to Interior Department posts. Alaska statehood advocacy propelled him into the United States Senate in 1968 where he served four decades, chairing the powerful Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.
Appropriations authority and special access programs
Stevens protected reconnaissance aircraft, missile defense initiatives, and classified aerospace research, arguing that superior technology deterred adversaries. His subcommittee control enabled quiet line-item transfers that kept stealth, hypersonic, and remote-sensing efforts hidden from public budget documents.1
Support for AAWSAP funding
In 2008 Stevens joined Majority Whip Daniel Inouye and Majority Leader Harry Reid to secure twenty-two million dollars for the Defense Intelligence Agency Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. The funds, buried in a supplemental appropriations act, flowed to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies to investigate unidentified anomalous phenomena and associated breakthrough physics.
Later years and legacy
Defeated in 2008 after a corruption trial later vacated, Stevens died in a 2010 air crash. His behind-scenes patronage of unconventional aerospace research resurfaced when Skinwalkers at the Pentagon revealed his role in birthing AAWSAP, cementing his reputation as an insider steward of frontier defense science.
References
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National Journal, "Stevens and Defense Dollars," 2005-07-23. ↩