John A. Samford

John Alexander Samford (August 29, 1905 – November 20, 1968) was a United States Air Force lieutenant general and a director of the National Security Agency.

Biography

Samford was born at Hagerman, New Mexico, in 1905. He graduated from high school in 1922 and then spent one year at Columbia College, New York City. In 1924, he received a senatorial appointment to the U.S. Military Academy. He graduated in 1928, 131st in a class of 260.

Second Lieutenant Samford's first assignment was that of a student officer at Brooks Field, Texas. In 1929, he received his pilot wings at Kelly Field and was eventually rated a command pilot.

Lieutenant Samford's first assignment after Kelly Field was Fort Crockett located at Galveston, Texas. In 1930, he returned to Kelly Field where he served as a flying instructor. In 1934, he was ordered to an Engineering and Armament School at Chanute Field, Illinois. From 1935 until 1942, he held various assignments in Panama, Virginia, Louisiana and Florida.

John A. Macdonald

Sir John Alexander Macdonald GCB KCMG PC PC QC (11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891) was a Canadian politician and Father of Confederation who was the first Prime Minister of Canada (1867–1873, 1878–1891). The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career which spanned almost half a century. He drank heavily, and in 1873 was voted out during the Pacific Scandal, in which his party took bribes from businessmen seeking the contract to build the Pacific Railway. Macdonald's greatest achievements were building and guiding a successful national government for the new Dominion, using patronage to forge a strong Conservative Party, promoting the protective tariff of the National Policy, and building the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway. Economic growth was slow during his years in office, as Canada verged on stagnation; many residents migrated to the fast-growing United States. He fought to block provincial efforts to take power back from Ottawa. His most controversial move was to approve the execution of Métis leader Louis Riel for treason in 1885; it permanently alienated the Francophones who saw themselves humiliated.