Nomination of Alton G. Keel, Jr., To Be the Permanent United States Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

The President today announced his intention to nominate Dr. Alton G. Keel, Jr., to be the U.S. Permanent Representative on the Council of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, with the rank and status of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. He would succeed David M. Abshire.

Dr. Keel is currently serving as the Acting Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs. In July of this year Dr. Keel was appointed to the staff of the National Security Council, where he served as Deputy Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and as Acting Principal Deputy to the National Security Adviser. From February to July of this year, he served as Executive Director of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. Prior to his appointment as Associate Director for National Security and International Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget in September of 1982, Dr. Keel served as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Research, Development, and Logistics, beginning in August of 1981. He also served on the senior professional staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee, 1978-1981. Dr. Keel initially joined the Senate staff as a congressional science fellow in 1976, and previously he performed weapons research at the Naval Surface Weapons Center in White Oak, MD.

He graduated from the University of Virginia (B.S., 1966; Ph.D., 1970), and he was a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California at Berkeley (1971). Dr. Keel is married, has one child, and was born in Hampton, VA.