Lieutenant General
Ronald V. Hite

LTG Ronald Hite was born in May 1943 in Washington County, Tennessee. He served in numerous key positions that directly contributed to the success of the Army and the Ordnance Corps today.

He played key roles in the testing and fielding of most weapons we currently use in the military and are considered top of the line in the world, namely the M1 Abrams Tanks and the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. He served as the Senior Military Advisor to the Army Acquisition Executive and the Army Chief of Staff on all research, development and acquisition programs and related issues. He testified as the principal military witness for Research, Development and Acquisition appropriations with Congress, supervised the Program Executive Officer system, and served as the Director, Army Acquisition Corps. He had oversight of approximately 450 Army modernization programs including all of the major combat weapons and combat support systems. This included supervision of the structure providing day-to-day management of those programs and defending these programs to OSD and Congress. Several major modernization programs are now being fielded to our soldiers thanks to the efforts of LTG Hite and his refusal to back down. Two programs, the Javelin Missile and the Longbow Apache Helicopter were on the verge of being cancelled by senior Army leaders in order to release funding for near term operations. LTG Hite successfully defended these programs and they are now two tremendous systems in the hands of our soldiers.

COL Hite successfully ran the test for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle Live Fire and stopped congressional cancellation of this critical, multibillion dollar program and saved lives during Desert Storm. COL Hite's team accomplished a similar live fire testing on the Abrams tank resulting in additional survivability improvements for our soldiers in combat.

In his present capacity as President and COO of Cypress International, LTG Hite continues to support the Army as a member of the Army Science Board, the OSD Technology Review and Assessment Process, AUSA and NDIA. His unquestionable sense of duty, loyalty to the soldiers and numerous contributions to our Nation's defense during peace and war helped put our military on the leading edge of technology and enable us, the Ordnance Corps, to carry the flame into the 21st century. LTG Hite retired from active duty in 1996 after a very successful career as an Ordnance soldier.