MAJOR GENERAL WILLIAM S. STONE
SUPERINTENDANT 1959 – 1962
General William Sebastian Stone was the air deputy to the supreme allied commander Europe. In this capacity he assists and advises SACEUR in functions relating to the Air Forces assigned to Allied Command Europe.
General Stone was born at Cape Girardeau, Mo., in 1910. After graduating from high school in St. Louis, he attended the U.S. Military Academy and upon graduation on June 12, 1934, was commissioned a second lieutenant.
Upon completing flying training in October 1935, he was assigned to the 32nd Bomb Squadron at March Field, Calif. Two years later, in June 1937, he entered the California Institute of Technology. He received the degree of master of science in meteorology the following year and was assigned to Fort Lewis, Wash., as the Weather Officer.
In May 1940, General Stone was appointed to the USMA as an instructor in economics, government and history. After two years at West Point, he was assigned to head the Air Corps Weather Research project at the California Institute of Technology. This assignment was followed by attendance at the Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kan., and then duty as chief of staff and deputy commander of the Air Corps Weather Wing at Asheville, N.C. During this assignment he spent several months on temporary duty in the European, Far Eastern and Pacific theaters.
In the summer of 1944, General Stone was appointed director of Weather Services for the Army Air Force in the Pacific Ocean area and for the U.S. Strategic Air Forces in Guam during the bombing raids on Japan.
In 1946, he was appointed chief of staff of the Air Weather Service in Washington, D.C. The following year, he returned to West Point as associate professor in the Department of Social Sciences; and while in that assignment he earned a master’s degree in economics from Columbia University. In August 1950 he entered the National War College. Upon graduation the following summer, he was assigned to Headquarters, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, initially as assistant chief of the Plans Division, then the following year as division chief.
After promotion to the grade of brigadier general, he was transferred to Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, in July 1953, as deputy director and then director of personnel planning. In September 1956, he was appointed assistant deputy chief of staff for personnel in the grade of major general. In June 1957 he was assigned to McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., as commander, Atlantic Division, Military Air Transport Service; and upon its reorganization, as commander, Eastern Transport Air Force.
In August 1959, General Stone was assigned as superintendent at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, where he served for three years. He was then returned to Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, in Washington as deputy chief of staff, personnel. Upon completion of this assignment in July 1966, General Stone was assigned to Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in Paris as air deputy to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe. Stone died while on active duty on December 2, 1968, of a heart attack while exercising at a gym in Mons, Belgium. He was interred at the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery on December 6, 1968.
General Stone was a rated command pilot and technical observer. His decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.
BRIGADIER GENERAL WILLIAM T. SEAWELL
COMMANDANT 1961 – 1963
Brigadier General William T. Seawell, commandant of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy, was an Air Force veteran with more than 20 years active commissioned service.
Born in Pine Bluff, Ark., in 1918, he attended high school in that city, which he listed as his permanent home. He graduated 28th in a class of 424 at the U.S. Military Academy, Class of 1941. In 1942 he received his pilot’s wings upon graduation from flying school. He is presently a command pilot.
During World War II, General Seawell served in the European theater of Operations. Flying B-17 Flying Fortresses, he commanded the 401st Bombardment Group. He flew 30 combat missions and was awarded the Silver Star, the Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters, the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, and the French Croix de Guerre with palm.
Post-war assignments took him to Headquarters Army Air Forces (1945-46), for which service he was awarded the Commendation Medal; to Harvard University as a student under the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology program, graduating with a bachelor of law degree in 1949; commander of the 11th Bomb Wing (Strategic Air Command) (1953-54); to the Air War College as a student (1955-56); to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force (1956-58); and the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (1958-59).
Prior to reporting to the U.S. Air Force Academy as commandant of cadets in June 1961, he was assigned as military assistant to deputy secretary of defense, Washington, D.C. His present assignment places him in command of the Airmanship Program at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The Airmanship Program prepares and motivates the cadet for a career of leadership as an officer in the U.S. Air Force. He was Commandant of Cadets at the United States Air Force Academy from 1961 to 1963.
After two years with the Air Transport Association, in 1965 he served as senior vice president for operations at American Airlines, then as president of Rolls-Royce Aero Engines.
Pan American World Airways recruited him in 1971 as president and Chief Operating Officer. A year later he was named Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Pan Am, where he served until his retirement in 1981.
Died May 20, 2005, aged 87, in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
DECORATIONS AND MEDALS
Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross with three oak leaf clusters, Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters, Commendation Ribbon, Presidential Unit Citation with oak leaf cluster, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, American Defense Service Medal, French Croix de Guerre with Palm, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Department of Defense Badge
BRIGADIER GENERAL ROBERT F. MCDERMOTT
DEAN 1956 – 1968
The background and experience of Brigadier General Robert F. McDermott, dean of the faculty of the U.S. Air Force Academy, was a record of startling contrasts — of the old and the new — of heritage and frontiers.
He was a graduate of the oldest public school in America, the Boston Latin School. He attended the oldest private military college, Norwich University, and graduated from the oldest service academy, West Point. He holds a master’s degree from the oldest university, Harvard, and a doctor of laws degree from St. Louis University, the oldest university west of the Mississippi.
In contrast with this academic background, he was associated with the founding of a new institution, the youngest of our service academies, since its establishment in 1954, He was appointed by President Eisenhower as the first permanent professor of the Air Force Academy in 1957, and as the first permanent dean of the faculty in 1959. His promotion to brigadier general that accompanied his appointment as dean made him the youngest general or flag officer on active duty at that time.
General McDermott’s military background has an analogous mixture of contrasting experiences. He served as a combat pilot and operations officer of a fighter-bomber group in the European Theater during World War II; and he served as a staff officer in a theater headquarters and in the Pentagon.
His performance was attested to by his command pilot rating and the combat decorations he wore — the Bronze Star, the Air Medal with five oak leaf clusters and the European Theater of Operations Ribbon with six battle stars — as well as by the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit and Commendation Medal he received for meritorious staff work.
From this contrasting background of tradition and youthful achievement General McDermott emerged as a recognized leader in higher education and pioneer in military education. The recognition he received in the form of appointments, promotions and awards is a reflection of his innovations and accomplishments as the academic administrator of the U.S. Air Force Academy. The innovations he introduced in the service academy system of education include the “whole man” concept in selecting cadets and a program of advanced and elective courses to enrich the prescribed curriculum.
The concept of using measures of a candidate’s moral and leadership attributes as well as his physical and mental qualifications for selection was introduced in 1956, for the first time at any service academy. Also in 1956, as another service academy first, General McDermott introduced a comprehensive curriculum enrichment program designed to provide each cadet with a challenge to advance academically as far and as fast as he can in accordance with his aptitudes, interests and prior preparation.
General McDermott’s goals for the academy included the establishment of an Astronautical Research Laboratory and an extension of the enrichment program to include graduate education opportunities for exceptional cadets, leading to the award of the master’s degree. Short of accomplishment of these goals, however, General McDermott could take pride in these definitive results of his pioneering innovations and academic administration; the superior performance of Air Force Academy cadets on the Graduate Record Examination aptitude and area achievement tests; the number of Rhodes Scholarships won by academy graduates in leading civilian graduate schools of engineering and political science; and the superior performance of academy graduates in flying training and in operational duty assignments.
McDermott wrote books on finance for service personnel, which attracted the attention of USAA president Charles Cheever and in 1968, McDermott retired from the Air Force to join USAA and become its chief executive officer. Under his leadership, USAA grew from the 16th to the 5th largest insurer of private automobiles in the nation and the nation’s 4th largest homeowner insurer. A Washington Post obituary explained:
Within the company, he was a leading force for minority hiring and equalizing wages. He established four-day workweeks and made employee child care a feature to attract working mothers. “You don’t lead by being authoritarian, he said… he had a reputation as a rare maverick in the insurance business, most notably advocating air bags as a crucial safety measure when auto manufacturers were saying it was too costly.
In September 1993 he assumed the position of Chairman Emeritus.
McDermott also played a significant role in the community of San Antonio, Texas. In 1974, he was elected chairman of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. In 1975, he founded the Economic Development Foundation and served as its chairman until 1980. In the 1980s, he focused on the developing of biotechnology in San Antonio, and founded the Texas Research and Technology Foundation which began development of the Texas Research Park. In the mid-1990s he was chairman of an investor group that purchased the San Antonio Spurs basketball team for $85 million.
Testaments to his lifelong interests in education include an elementary school and a Clinical Science Building at the University of Texas Health Science Center which bear his name. A grateful community designated a section of Interstate 10 in Texas running through San Antonio between I-35 outside of Downtown to Loop 1604 as the Robert F. McDermott Freeway in recognition of his many initiatives as a pioneer civic entrepreneur, both in education and economic development. Academic chairs in his honor have been established at the United States Air Force Academy and the United States Military Academy, and the library at the Air Force Academy also bears his name.
For his leadership in business, he was selected to the Texas Business Hall of Fame in 1987 and the American National Business Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1993, West Point selected him to receive its Distinguished Graduate Award. In 1994 Fortune selected him as Laureate in Junior Achievement’s National Business Hall of Fame. In 1996, the International Insurance Society inducted him into the Insurance Hall of Fame. In 1998, he was awarded the Harvard Business School’s highest honor, the Alumni Achievement Award, as a tribute to his accomplishments at the Air Force Academy and USAA. He received the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement in June 1999. His Golden Plate was presented by Awards Council member General David C. Jones.
McDermott died on August 28, 2006, in San Antonio at the age of 86. He had suffered a stroke about a month earlier. General McDermott was eulogized by former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry G. Cisneros at the funeral, and interred at Fort Sam Houston United States National Cemetery on September 1, 2006.
MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT H. WARREN
SUPERINTENDANT 1962 – 1965
Warren was born in Yankton, South Dakota in 1917. He graduated from Yankton High School in 1934, attended Yankton College for two years, and then attended the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1940. In 1941 he graduated from flying school and received his pilot wings.
He next was assigned to the 29th Bombardment Group at MacDill Field, Florida as a B-18 Bolo pilot where he flew antisubmarine patrol duty from Newfoundland and Florida before and during the early days of World War II. In 1942 he moved to Boise, Idaho, with the 29th Group and participated in the B-17 crew and unit training program as a flight commander, squadron commander and then for a year as deputy commander of the 15th Bombardment Wing.
During 1944 and 1945 he flew combat with Fifteenth Air Force B-24 units in the European Theater of Operations as a squadron commander, 47th Wing operations officer, and as commander of the 376th Bombardment Group.
In 1945 he returned with the 376th Bombardment Group to Grand Island, Nebraska, where the group was reequipped and transitioned to B-29 aircraft.
General Warren was assigned to Headquarters Army Air Forces in Washington, D.C., in 1946. He went to the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama in August 1949 and upon graduation in June 1950, was assigned to Headquarters, Far East Air Forces where he served as director of operations, then assistant deputy for operations during the three years of the Korean War.
He returned to the United States in 1953 and again was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C., where he served as executive assistant to the secretary of the Air Force, and for two years as military assistant to the deputy secretary of Defense.
In July 1959 he went to the Air Proving Ground Center at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, where he served as vice commander, then commander, except for a six-month period of duty in 1961 as senior member, Military Armistice Commission, United Nations Command, Korea.
He was named fourth superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy in July 1962 and served in this position until July 1965.
From August 1965 to April 1967, he served as chief of staff of the Air Force Systems Command at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland. In April 1967 General Warren again returned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force and served as assistant deputy chief of staff, personnel.
In July 1968, General Warren became the director of military assistance in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (International Security Affairs). Subsequently, in March 1969 with the assumption of the additional responsibility for International Logistics Negotiations, he became the deputy assistant secretary of defense (international security affairs) for military assistance and sales.
In 1999, Warren moved to Charleston, West Virginia. He died at his home there on January 9, 2010. Warren was interred at the United States Air Force Academy Cemetery on January 15, 2010.
MAJOR GENERAL ROBERT WILLIAM STRONG JR.
COMMANDANT 1963 – 1965
Major General Robert William Strong Jr., was chief of staff of the Eighth Air Force, Westover Air Force Base, Mass. In this position, he bore a large share of the responsibility for the efficient management of the Strategic Air Command’s largest numbered Air Force.
General Strong was born in Painesville, Ohio, in 1917. As a graduate of the Valley Forge Military Academy, Wayne, Pa., the general entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in July 1936 on a presidential appointment. He graduated from West Point and was commissioned a second lieutenant in June 1940.
The general began flight training in October 1940 and received his pilot wings at Kelly Field, Texas, in September 1941. After advanced training in bomber aircraft he was assigned in December 1941 as operations officer for the 41st Bomb Group, Hammer Field, Calif., and later as operations officer for the 47th Bomb Squadron at Visalia, Calif.
In August 1942 he was transferred to Topeka, Kan., as operations officer for the 333rd Bomb Group, and later moved to Salina, Kan., as operations officer for the 346th Bomb Group. His next assignment came in January 1943 when he took command of Salina’s 504th Bomb Squadron.
Moving back to Topeka in March 1943 the general became assistant operations officer for the 2nd Heavy Bombardment Processing Headquarters where he served until February 1944. At that time he was reassigned as air inspector for the 3rd Heavy Bombardment Processing Headquarters, also at Topeka, and later held the same position in Topeka’s 272nd Base Unit.
June 1944 found General Strong back at Salina in command of the 62nd Bomb Squadron which he led to the Southwest Pacific Theater of Operations. He later moved up to command of the 39th Bomb Group based on the island of Guam. During this time the general logged 200 combat hours flying the B-29 Superfortress in raids over Japan.
Returning to the States in October 1945 the general served as a tactical officer at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point until July 1948. He then became assistant air attache to Canada until August 1952 when he entered the Naval War College at Newport, R.I.
Upon graduation from the War College in June 1953 the general was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Washington, D.C., where he served with the Deputy Directorate of Targets until August 1956.
The general began his service with SAC in August 1956 as director of operations for the 4th Air Division, Barksdale Air Force Base, La. He served in this capacity until May 1957, when he was named commander of the 376th Bomb Wing at Barksdale. In October 1957 he moved to McCoy Air Force Base, Fla., as commander of the 321st Bomb Wing where he remained until July 1959 when he took command of the 4082d Strategic Wing at Goose Air Base, Labrador.
Returning to the United States in November 1961, General Strong became commander of the 825th Strategic Aerospace Division, Little Rock, Ark. He remained at Little Rock until March 1963 when he was assigned as commandant of cadets, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colo.
General Strong returned to SAC in July 1965 as commander of the 817th Air Division, Pease Air Force Base, N.H., where he served until his assignment as chief of staff, Eighth Air Force, in July 1966, where he remained until he retired on May 1, 1970. Strong died on March 16, 2006.
His decorations include the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.