About Curtis LeMay
Curtis Emerson LeMay (November 15, 1906 – October 1, 1990) was a US Air Force general who was a key American military commander during World War II and the Cold War, including the Korean War. He served as Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force from 1961 to 1965. LeMay joined the United States Army Air Corps, the precursor to the United States Air Force, in 1929 while studying civil engineering at Ohio State University. He had risen to the rank of major by the time of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the United States' entry into World War II. He commanded the 305th Bombardment Group from October 1942 until September 1943, and the 3rd Air Division in the European theatre of World War II until August 1944, when he was transferred to the China Burma India Theater. He was then placed in command of strategic bombing operations against Japan, planning and executing a massive fire bombing campaign against 66 Japanese cities, and Operation Starvation, a crippling minelaying campaign in Japan's internal waterways. After the war, he was assigned to command USAF Europe and coordinated the Berlin Airlift. He served as commander of the Strategic Air Command (SAC) from 1948 to 1957, where he presided over the transition to an all–jet aircraft force that had a strong emphasis on the delivery of nuclear weapons in the event of war. As Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force (USAF), he called for the bombing of Cuban missile sites during the Cuban Missile Crisis and sought a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam during the Vietnam War. After retiring from the Air Force in 1965, LeMay agreed to serve as pro-segregation Alabama Governor George Wallace's running mate on the far-right American Independent Party ticket in the 1968 US presidential election. The ticket won 46 electoral votes, five states, and 13.5% of the popular vote, a strong tally for a third party campaign, but the Wallace campaign came to see LeMay as a liability due to his controversial stance promoting the use of nuclear weapons. After the election, LeMay retired to Newport Beach, California, where he died in 1990 at age 83. LeMay became a pursuit pilot with his first duty station at Selfridge Field with the 27th Pursuit Squadron. While stationed in Hawaii, he became one of the first members of the Air Corps to receive specialized training in aerial navigation. For this flight, the 2nd Bombardment Group was awarded the Mackay Trophy in 1939. In September 1943, he became the first commander of the newly formed 3rd Air Division.
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