US Air Force General. He was born in Weed, California, and in 1931 he graduated for high school in Tulare, California. He attended St. Mary's College of California and was selected to enter to US Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating on June 12, 1937. He completed flying school at Kelly Field (now Kelly Air Force Base), Texas in October 1938, and served in various flying squadron positions before he was assigned to Davis-Monthan Field (now Davis-Monthan Air Force Base), Arizona, as the commander of the 62nd Bombardment Squadron. Later on he became the deputy commander of the 34th Bombardment Group at that location. He transferred to Gowen Field, Idaho, serving as the deputy group commander of the 34th Bombardment Group and later as the commander of the 29th Bombardment Group. In January 1943, he became commander of the 379th Bombardment Group at Wendover Field, Utah. He transferred with the 379th to England in early 1943 and flew 45 combat missions over Europe in B-17 Flying Fortress bomber aircraft. He participated in the now-historic bombing raids on the ball bearing factories at Schweinfurt, Germany, the first one on August 17, 1943, and he led the second one on October 14, 1943, which resulted in catastrophic losses to US aircraft and aircrews (26 percent of B-17 aircraft shot down by enemy aircraft or crashed on return to England and 22 percent of aircrew members killed or missing), the highest for any US Army Air Force bombing mission in World War II, and the mission was named "Black Thursday." In October 1944, he became the commander of the 41st Bombardment Wing until May 1945, when he returned to the United States and was assigned as the base commander of the 231st Army Air Force Base Unit (now Holloman Air Force Base) at Alamogordo, New Mexico. In August 1946, he enrolled as a student at the Air Command and Staff School, Maxwell Field (now Maxwell Air Force Base), Alabama, and upon graduating in June 1947, be became the chief, Inter-American Security Branch and Military Coordinating Committee of the Permanent Joint Board of Defense, Canada and the United States, Washington DC. Later on, he joined the Plans Division of Headquarters Air Force, Washington DC. In 1949, he was appointed as deputy commander for Plans and Operations of the US Northeastern Command at St. Johns, Newfoundland. He was then assigned to the Strategic Air Command in March 1952, as commander of the 308th Bombardment Wing (Medium) at Hunter Air Force Base, Georgia. In January 1954, he assumed the command of the Strategic Air Command's 4th Air Division at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana. In May 1956, he was reassigned to Headquarters Air Force where he was named the deputy director of operations in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff/Operations, assuming the position of director in August 1957. On July 25, 1960, he became commander of Tactical Air Command's 19th Air Force, often termed "the suitcase Air Force" because of its ability to relocate instantly anywhere in the world as the Tactical Air Command's Composite Air Strike Force command nucleus and planning elements. He then became commander, US Air Forces Japan, and commander, 5th Air Force, in August 1963, and on 1 August 1966, he was promoted to the rank of general and assumed command of the US Air Forces in Europe, serving in that position until August 1, 1968, when he retired with 31 years of continuous active military service in the US Army Air Corps and Air Force. He attained some 7,000 flying hours in various Air Force aircraft, was rated as a command pilot, a navigator and bombardier and became the first Air Force office of his rank to go through the Army's Airborne School, earning his paratroopers wings in October 1960. His military awards and decorations include the Silver Star with oak leaf cluster, the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, the Bronze Star, the Air Medal with seven oak leaf clusters, the Army Commendation Medal, and the Purple Heart. Additionally, in July 1966 while serving as the commander, US Air Forces Japan, and commander, 5th Air Force, he was conferred with Japan's First Order of the Sacred Treasure by his Imperial Highness, Hirohito, the Emperor of Japan, one of the highest awards bestowed by the Government of Japan upon a foreign military officer. He died of cancer in Bethesda, Maryland.