US Army Air Forces Major General. A pioneer aviator, he was one of the early theorists of strategic air power, and proponent of an independent US Air Force branch of military service. Born Robert Oldys, the oldest of four children, his father was an ornithologist employed by the Division of Biological Survey of the US Department of Agriculture. After graduating from Central High School in Washington DC, he enlisted in the Aviation Section, Signal Enlisted Reserve Corps in January 1917, became a sergeant, and entered pilot training at the Curtis Flying School, Newport News, Virginia. In May 1917 he received his Reserve Military Aviator rating, just after the US entered World War I. The following month he was commissioned as a 1st lieutenant in the Signal Officers Reserve Corps. His first assignment was as commander of the newly organized and untrained 17th Aero Squadron at Kelly Field (now Kelly Air Reserve Base, a part of Joint Base San Antonio), Texas. In August 1917 the squadron moved to Toronto, Ontario, Canada to begin unit training with the British Royal Flying Corps. After three weeks of recruit instruction at Leaside Aerodrome in Leaside, Ontario, he was sent to Camp Borden, Ontario and remained squadron commander until October, when he became a flying instructor at Scott Field (now Scott Air Force Base), Illinois. Two months later he was transferred as an instructor to Ellington Field (now Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base, a part of the Texas Air National Guard), Texas, where he advanced through various supervisory positions. In September 1918 he was promoted to the rank of captain and sent to France, where he was assigned to pursuit training at the 3rd Aviation Instruction Center at Issoudun. After completing the course, he was assigned to the 7th Aviation Instruction Center at Clermont-Ferrand, France where he became the training officer for bombardment and later Officer-In-Charge. In January 1919, following the end of World War I, he was assigned to the staff of Colonel Frank P. Lahm, chief of Air Service, 2nd Army at Toul, France as flight examiner (and Lahm's pilot), until he returned to Washington DC in August of that year. Two months later he transferred to Fort Ruger at Honolulu, Hawaii as Air Service Operations Officer, with concurrent command of the 3rd Balloon Company. A reserve officer, he decided to remain in the military but needed a regular commission to avoid being demobilized by the National Defense Act of 1920, and after passing the requisite qualifying examinations, he received commissions as 1st lieutenant and captain of Air Service of the Regular Army in July 1920. In July 1921 he was assigned operations officer of the 5th Observation Group at Luke Field (now part of Naval Base Pearl Harbor), Hawaii and became its commander from April to May 1922, and again (now the 5th Composite Group) from November 1922 to April 1923. During his Hawaiian tour he was credited with the first night flight over Oahu on June 30, 1920, the first flight to the island of Molokai, Hawaii on August 18, 1920, and the first flight over the Haleakalā crater on August 25, 1920. In 1923 he transferred to the Office of the Chief of Air Service in Washington DC, working in the War Plans Division, often as an aide to the Assistant Chief of the Air Service, General Billy Mitchell. In October 1925 he assisted Mitchell during the Morrow Board hearings, and the following month at Mitchell's court martial. With his military career conceivably in jeopardy, his ensuing testimony described the dangerous conditions under which the Air Service was forced to operate, and a lack of understanding of aviation requirements on the part of non-flying senior staff and commanders. Although mocked and questioned with sarcastic hostility during cross-examination by the nine ground forces generals comprising the court martial panel, he "held his own". In September 1927 he was assigned to Langley Field (now Langley Air Force Base, a part of Joint Base Langley-Eustis), where he would spend eleven of the next thirteen years and became a student at the Air Corps Tactical School (ACTS). After completing the course the following July, he was invited to become one of its instructors and served in the Bombardment Section of the ACTS faculty, where he and several others were responsible for the ascendancy of bombardment (which existed mainly in theory and undeveloped technology) over pursuit as the primary emphasis of both the ACTS curriculum and the development of US Army Air Corps doctrine. When ACTS relocated to Maxwell Field, Alabama he remained at Langley as Operations Officer to the 2d Bombardment Group from 1931 to 1933. He was then selected to attend the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Following his graduation in June 1935, he was promoted to the rank of major and returned to Langley, where the command staff of the General Headquarters Air Force was stationed, and joined it as the Chief of Inspection Section. In March 1937 he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel and selected to command the 2nd Bomber Group, which was about to receive the first twelve operational B-17s Flying Fortress aircraft, and his command tour there developed standard operating procedures and tactics for the B-17, and was marked by numerous highly publicized exercises and goodwill missions. In August 1937 the group located and attacked the target ship USS Utah off California, followed in May 1938 by interception of the Italian liner Rex 620 miles at sea, both under adverse weather conditions. In January 1938, he made two record-breaking non-stop transcontinental flights between Langley and March Field, California, completing the 2,317 miles in just over 11 hours on the return flight. The following month he personally led a goodwill flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina (for which he was awarded the Mackay Trophy and the Distinguished Flying Cross) and in November 1939 to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In January 1940 he was assigned to the Plans Division of the Office of Chief of the US Army Air Corps in Washington DC and was promoted to rank of colonel in October of that year. In May 1941 he was assigned by Major General Henry "Hap" Arnold to organize the newly established Air Corps Ferrying Command to expedite the delivery of bomber aircraft to the British Royal Air Force, following passage of the Lend Lease Act in March 1941. When the US entered World War II in December 1941, he immediately implemented a previously-prepared plan to use civilian pilots to replace military aviators sent back to their combat commands and he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in January 1942. The wartime stress of his command led to his first heart attack in March 1942. The following month he returned to duty and became commander of the 3rd Bomber Command and shortly thereafter he became commanding general of the 2nd Air Force with a promotion to the rank of major general in May. He then moved his headquarters from Spokane, Washington, to a forward location at Davis-Monthan Field (now Davis-Monthan Air Force Base), Arizona. In early 1943 he was diagnosed with pericardial disease and Libman-Sacks endocarditis that required extensive hospitalization beginning in February of that year and he was placed in temporary retirement and he died of pneumonia at the age of 46, having served in the military for 26 continuous years. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered from a B-17 Flying Fortress aircraft over the mountains near Davis-Monthan Field. His military and foreign awards and decorations include the Distinguished Flying Cross with 1 oak leaf cluster, the World War I Victory Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, and the Brazilian National Order of the Southern Cross. He was a rated command pilot and combat observer. The Liberty ship SS Daniel E. Garrett was renamed Major General Robert Olds in his honor. The Major General Robert Olds Award, sponsored by the US Air Force's Air Mobility Command, is presented annually during graduation week at the US Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colorado to the most outstanding graduating cadet majoring in International Affairs. He was the father of Brigadier General Robin Olds, an acclaimed and highly decorated "triple ace" World War II and Vietnam War combat fighter pilot.