John Alexander Gordon (August 22, 1946 – April 19, 2020) was an American air force general who served as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He also served as the President's Homeland Security advisor from 2003 to 2004. Military career Gordon entered the Air Force through the Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 1968. His early assignments were in research, development and acquisition where he was involved in improving the Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) and in developing and acquiring the Peacekeeper ICBM. He was a long-range planner at Strategic Air Command and served with the U.S. State Department in the Bureau of Politico-Military Affairs. Later, he commanded the 90th Strategic Missile Wing, the only Peacekeeper ICBM unit. He has served with the National Security Council in the areas of defense and arms control, including the oversight and completion of the START II negotiations. He then became a senior member of the secretary of defense's staff and later, the director of operations, Air Force Space Command, responsible for overseeing and developing policy and guidance for the command's operational missions. He also has served as special assistant to the Air Force chief of staff for long-range planning, where he was responsible for restarting and integrating a long-range planning process into the Air Force. Prior to assuming the deputy director position, he was associate director of central intelligence for military support, Central Intelligence Agency. He retired from the Air Force on August 1, 2000. Post-military career Following his Air Force retirement, Gordon was chosen as the first administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration and also Under Secretary of Energy, responsible for the U.S. nuclear weapons program, a position he filled from June 2000 to June 2002. He next served as the Deputy National Security Advisor for Combating Terrorism, then assumed duties as Homeland Security Advisor from April 2003 to July 2004. On September 16, 2004, he was inducted into the Naval Postgraduate School Hall of Fame. After retiring from public service, he served on the Markle Foundation Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, as well as the board of advisors of VirtualAgility, Inc. (beginning in October 2005), the board of EDO Corporation (beginning in 2007), and the Board of Trustees of Analytic Services, Inc. Gordon died on April 19, 2020, at the age of 73. Education 1968 Bachelor of Science degree in physics, with honors, University of