General Lawrence Albert Skantze (born June 24, 1928) is a retired United States Air Force four-star general and was commander, Air Force Systems Command at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. Skantze was born in 1928, in the Bronx, New York. After graduation from Cardinal Hayes High School in 1946, he enlisted in the United States Navy and served as a radio operator. In 1948 he received a competitive appointment from the U.S. Atlantic Fleet to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, and graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering and a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He received a Master of Science degree in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, in 1959. He compl