Hoyt S. Vandenberg

Hoyt Sanford Vandenberg (born January 24, 1899 in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , † April 2, 1954 in Washington, DC ) was an American general in the US Air Force . He was Air Force Commander in Europe during World War II , Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1946/47 and Chief of Staff of the Air Force from 1948 to 1953 .

As a pilot and staff officer, Vandenberg was a career soldier in every respect. During the Second World War he was one of the most important planners of the Allied air force operations in the North African and European theater of war and head of the largest air force unit in history. At 48, he was the youngest general since Ulysses S. Grant and became the second Chief of Staff of the Air Force (CSAF) in 1948.

As CSAF during the early years of the Cold War , he was an advocate of the nuclear deterrent strategy and initiated the development of the strategic air force component. He promoted missile development, the proliferation of computers, nuclear weapons experiments, and the transition to jet-powered aircraft.

Hoyt Vandenberg was one of the fathers of an independent Luftwaffe and the founding father of the CIA intelligence service . The US Air Force emerged from the US Army Air Forces in 1947 and these in turn emerged from the United States Army Air Corps with Vandenberg's participation in 1941 .

Life

Youth and education

Hoyt Vandenberg was born in Milwaukee in 1899 but grew up in Lowell , Massachusetts . He became interested in military matters at a very early age, read books about World War I and Pershing's expedition to Mexico and, against the opposition of his father, the businessman William Collins Vandenberg, made the decision to become a soldier. Through the relationships of his uncle, later Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg of Michigan , he received one of the coveted state nominations for the US Military Academy West Point and attended courses in English and mathematics in Washington to prepare for the entrance exam.

In 1923 he graduated 240th out of 262 cadets. Since he was out of the question for the cavalry because of his poor performance , he decided to fly and was appointed second lieutenant in the aviation service of the US Army . In February 1924 he graduated from the aviation school in Brooks Field, Texas, and in September of the same year the air service advanced flying school in Kelly Field, Texas.

First years as a pilot

Transferred to the 3rd Combat Squadron in Kelly Field, he became Chief of the 90th Squadron. In October 1927 he became a flight instructor at the Air Corps Primary Flying School in March Field, California and in May 1929 switched to the 6th Fighter Squadron on Schofield Barracks ( Hawaii ) as First Lieutenant , over which he was given command in November.

Upon his return in 1931, he became a flight instructor at Randolph Field, Texas, and in 1933 became a flight commander and assistant stage commander . In 1934/35 he attended the Air Corps Tactical School in Maxwell Field, Alabama . Two months later he attended the General Staff Course at Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . He then became a teacher at the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field until he went to Army War College in Washington in 1936 , which he graduated three years later.

Second World War

He was then a general staff officer on the staff of the Chief of Air Corps and moved a few months after the outbreak of World War II as major and general staff officer for operations and training to the air staff ( Air Staff ) Henry H. Arnolds in Washington. For his services in these positions, Vandenberg, Colonel since January 1942 , was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal .

In June 1942 Vandenberg accompanied his superior General Arnold to England and stayed there at the request of Carl A. Spaatz to help plan and organize the air force operations in North Africa ( Operation Torch ). In October he was selected by Arnold as Chief of Staff in James Doolittle's 12th Air Force , which he had helped set up, and received his first star in December (promotion to Brigadier General ).

On February 18, 1943 he was - also under Doolittle - Chief of Staff of the Northwest African Strategic Air Force , with which he flew 26 sorties over Tunisia , Italy , Sardinia , Sicily and Pantelleria . For his services during this time he received the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross and was accepted into the American Legion of Merit, created in 1942, in recognition of his organizational skills .

In August 1943, Vandenberg returned as one of four deputy chiefs of staff on Arnold's staff. A month later he accompanied the American ambassador Harriman to the Soviet Union and took part in the conferences in Quebec, Tehran and Cairo. In March 1944 he returned to England as Major General with Eisenhower and in April became Deputy Commander in Chief of the Allied Air Force and Commander of the American Air Force Components. In August 1944, he took over as the successor to Lewis H. Breretons command of the Ninth Air Force , the largest with 180,000 men and 4,000 aircraft tactical Air Force Association of history, and received for his part in planning the invasion of Normandy his second Distinguished Service Medal .

Building the CIA

In July 1945 he became Assistant Chief of Air Staff at the headquarters of the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) and in 1946 Eisenhower appointed him director of the G-2 intelligence department in the War Department ( Chief of Army Intelligence ). In this post, he stayed over four months until he on June 10 by President Truman as the second director of the successor of the disbanded after the war Office of Strategic Services central newly formed Intelligence Service ( Central Intelligence Group, CIG was sworn).

His predecessor in this office, Admiral Sidney W. Souers , had proposed him as his successor, as Vandenberg seemed to him to be the right man to build the new intelligence service independent of the armed forces. In his opinion, Vandenberg had political connections as the nephew of an influential senator, leadership qualities as military leader in the war, and expertise as Eisenhower's intelligence chief.

Souer's assessment turned out to be correct. As an operations planner and air fleet commander, Vandenberg had experienced the great importance of coordinated information acquisition and evaluation during the war and was therefore able to think outside the box of his military category. During his eleven-month service as Director of Central Intelligence , DCI , he succeeded in separating the intelligence service from the armed forces and developing the CIG into an independent federal agency with its own area of responsibility, its own budget and its own personnel responsibility. He campaigned for a doubling of the budget, increased the number of employees and founded new departments ( Office of Special Operations , Office of Reports and Estimates ). Against the resistance of the Ministry of the Interior and the FBI , whose intelligence work in Latin America the CGI took over in July, he managed to obtain sole responsibility for his agency for covert information collection and analysis and for counter-espionage abroad, as well as the competence to conduct independent investigations and carry out analyzes.

As always, Vandenberg performed his task with great energy and ingenuity. For example, he succeeded in getting the New York Times - and possibly other press organs as well - to grant the CIG access to its archive of confidential information dossiers and was thus able to obtain considerably more basic information in one fell swoop than the CIG could ever do on its own would have been. But although in this position he was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of an independent intelligence service, which was then actually implemented as the Central Intelligence Agency by the National Security Act of 1947 , this use was not entirely to his taste; he saw it more as a stepping stone for his further career in the Air Force (which is why his staff mockingly called him the sparkplug ).

Postwar and Korean War

Hoyt S. Vandenberg

In April 1947 he returned to the Army Air Force and after the formation of the United States Air Force on June 26, 1947 became its first deputy commander and chief of the air staff. On October 1, 1947, he was appointed General and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Force and on April 30, 1948, shortly before the Soviet blockade of Berlin, he succeeded General Carl Spaatz as CSAF. In this capacity, he was a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff with J. Lawton Collins for the US Army, Forrest P. Sherman for the US Navy and Omar N. Bradley as chairman, at the head of the US armed forces .

Although a second term in peacetime was not common, in 1952 the Senate confirmed President Truman's nomination for another 14 months until June 30, 1953. On the one hand, Truman wanted to enable Vandenberg to retire at the end of 30 years of service, and on the other, he could so the decision for a successor - Secretary of State of the US Air Force Finletter endorsed the Chief of Strategic Air Command , Curtis LeMay , but found no approval - should be postponed.

Sickness and death

Long and seriously ill, Vandenberg retired on June 30, 1953 - one month before the armistice agreement with North Korea was signed - and died of cancer in April of the following year in the Walter Reed Military Hospital . He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery on April 5, 1954 .

family

Vandenberg had been married to Gladys Merritt Rose since 1923, whom he had met while at West Point . The marriage had two children: a daughter, Gloria, and a son, Hoyt S. Vandenberg II , who also became a pilot and air force officer and retired as Major General in 1981.

Gladys Vandenberg, who was buried next to her husband after her death in 1978, founded the Ladies of Arlington in 1948 , a group of wives or widows of officers who attend every funeral at the National Cemetery on behalf of the Chiefs of Staff of the Army, Air Force, and Navy.

reception

On October 4, 1958, Cooke Air Force Base in Lompoc , California , was renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base . Vandenberg AFB is the largest and most important aerospace base on the Pacific coast and, next to Cape Canaveral, the second rocket launch site in the USA. Here, missiles are tested and military satellites are transported into orbit.

In 1961, the former 13,000-ton transporter General Harry Taylor (AP-145) from 1943 was put back into service as USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10). It was decommissioned in 1996 and was sunk off the coast of Florida on May 27, 2009 as the second largest artificial reef in the world.

The American Air Force Association has presented the Hoyt S. Vandenberg Award annually since 1948 for "the most outstanding contribution in the field of space training".

Awards

Selection of decorations, sorted based on the Order of Precedence of the Military Awards:

References

literature

Mark M. Boatner: The Biographical Dictionary of World War II. - Novato, CA: Presidio, 1996. pp. 584-585. - ISBN 0-89141-548-3
Charles R. Christensen: An Assessment of General Hoyt S. Vandenberg's Accomplishments as Director of Central Intelligence. IN: Intelligence and National Security 11, no.4 . - October 1996. pp. 754-764.
James E. David: Vandenberg, Hoyt Sanford. American National Biography Online , February 2000. (Access Date: Wed Aug 24 2005 16:41:25 GMT + 0200)
Keith D. McFarland: Vandenberg, Hoyt S. In: Stanley Sandler (eds.): The Korean War: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing, 1995. pp. 343-344. - ISBN 0-8240-4445-2
Phillip Meilinger: Hoyt S. Vandenberg: The Life of a General. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1989. ISBN 0-253-32862-4
Phillip S. Meilinger: American Airpower Biography: A Survey of the Field. - Maxwell AFB, Alabama: Air University Press, 1995.
Noel Parrish: Hoyt S. Vandenberg: Building the New Air Force. In: John Frisbee (ed.): Makers of the United States Air Force. - Honolulu, Hawaii: University Press of the Pacific, 2005. - ISBN 1-4102-2220-9
Jon Reynolds: Education and Training for High Command: General Hoyt S. Vandenberg's Early Career. - Dissertation, Durham NC, Duke University, 1980
Robert Smith: The Influence of USAF Chief of Staff Hoyt S. Vandenberg on United States National Security Policy. - Dissertation, Washington DC, American University, 1965
C. Thomas Thorne, Jr. and David S. Patterson: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1945-1950 - Truman Series: Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment. - Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office , 1996 Introduction and Documents 155-195. - ISBN 0-16-045208-2 online

Web links

Commons : Hoyt Vandenberg - collection of images, videos and audio files

Extensive bibliography compiled by Diana Simpson, Bibliographer, Air University Library, Maxwell AFB, AL, February 2003
Vandenberg's official biography (Engl.)

Individual evidence

^ Lit .: Meilinger, 1989

predecessor	Office	successor
Sidney William Souers	Director of the CIG 1946–1947	Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter

personal data
SURNAME	Vandenberg, Hoyt S.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Vandenberg, Hoyt Sanford
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American four-star general; Air Fleet Commander in World War II; CIA director; Chief of Staff of the Air Force
DATE OF BIRTH	January 24, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH	Milwaukee , Wisconsin
DATE OF DEATH	April 2, 1954
Place of death	Washington, DC

[1] Lit .: Meilinger, 1989