Lauris Norstad

Lauris Norstad, July 1945

Lauris Norstad (born March 24, 1907 in Minneapolis , Minnesota , † September 12, 1988 in Tucson , Arizona ) was a general in the US Air Force and from 1956 to 1963 Supreme Allied Commander Europe ( SACEUR ) of NATO .

Military career

Early years

Norstad was of Scandinavian descent and graduated from the US Military Academy in West Point , New York on June 12, 1930 as 139th in class 241, received his officer license as a second lieutenant and was trained as a cavalry officer. From September of the same year he completed basic training for aviators in March Field , California , then completed the advanced flight school and was transferred to the US Army Air Corps in June 1931 . In January 1932, Norstad was transferred to the 18th Pursuit Group ( Schofield Barracks , Hawaii ) and finally took over command in July 1933. In March 1936 he was appointed adjutant to the commander of the 9th Bombardment Group in Hawaii and served in that position until September 1939. He was now transferred to the Air Corps Tactical School in Maxwell Field , Alabama , graduating three months later and serving as Senior officer transferred to the 9th Bombardment Group Navigation School .

First staff assignments and World War II

Six months later, in July 1940, Norstad became the adjutant to the commander of the 25th Bombardment Group , Langley Field , Virginia . In November of the same year he was appointed as a major assistant chief of staff for intelligence at the headquarters of the US Army Air Corps. After a year and a half, in February 1942, Norstad became a Lieutenant Colonel member of the advisory staff to Commanding General Henry H. Arnold of the now renamed US Army Air Forces in Washington, DC In August 1942, Norstad was promoted to Colonel and took over the post of Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations of the US 12th Air Force , relocated to England the following month and to Algiers in French North Africa by October . In February 1943 he was promoted to Brigadier General and also took over the post of Assistant Chief of Staff for operations of the Northwest African Air Forces . In this position he was involved in the development of the plans for the air operations during the landings of the Allied forces in Sicily ( Operation Husky ) and Italy ( Operation Avalanche ). At the end of 1943, in December, he became director of operations for the Allied Air Forces in the Mediterranean Sea in Algiers and two months later in Caserta , Italy.

In August 1944, Norstad was transferred to Washington (DC), where he served as chief of staff of the newly established 20th US Air Force , which later led the air war against Japan and, among other things, carried out the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki , and also as deputy chief of staff of the Air Staff at the headquarters of the US Army Air Forces . He resigned this additional post on May 8, 1945 to take on another additional post as assistant chief of staff for planning at headquarters and to receive promotion to major general . In February 1946 he gave up the post of Chief of Staff of the 20th US Air Fleet and finally in June also that of the Assistant Chief of Staff for planning at headquarters and became director of the planning and operations department under Secretary of War Kenneth C. Royall in the US - Ministry of War appointed. In this position he was responsible for the reorganization of the US air force after World War II . Together with the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations , Vice Admiral Forrest P. Sherman , he helped draft and enforce the National Security Act of 1947 in the negotiations between the US Navy and the US Army .

Service in Europe

On 1 October 1947 he was appointed Lieutenant General promoted and appointed deputy chief of staff for operations of the newly independent armed force US Air Force appointed. In May 1948 he also took over the post of Acting Deputy Chief of Staff of the Air Force under Hoyt S. Vandenberg .

In October 1950 Norstad was transferred to Europe and took command of the United States Air Forces in Europe ( USAFE ) in Wiesbaden . On April 2, 1951, he also took over the post of Commanding General of the Allied Air Forces Central Europe of NATO and was promoted to General in July 1952 . A year later, on July 27, 1953, he was subordinate to the Supreme Allied Commander Europe ( SACEUR ), Alfred M. Gruenther , in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe ( SHAPE ) as Deputy Commander Air Force .

On November 20, 1956, Norstad followed the orders of the former SACEUR and now US President Dwight D. Eisenhower Gruenther to the post of SACEUR and also took over the command of the US European Command . During this use, the Berlin Wall was completed in August 1961 , thus cementing the division of Berlin . In his position as NATO's Supreme Commander in Europe, Norstad repeatedly opposed the slow build-up of NATO forces. However, he was unable to assert himself with the equipment of the armed forces with medium-range missiles (generally referred to as the Norstad Plan ), which he called for, because the US government under John F. Kennedy spoke out against an independent NATO nuclear force. Norstad therefore submitted his resignation as SACEUR and should give up the post on November 1, 1962. He therefore handed over command of the US European Command to Lyman L. Lemnitzer on November 1st . The North Atlantic Council decided, however, that Norstad should remain in his post as SACEUR for the time being because of the critical situation during the Cuba crisis in October 1962 . On January 1, 1963, he finally gave up command to Lemnitzer and retired.

From 1963 to 1972 he was President of Owens Corning Fiberglas Corporation in New York, served as CEO until 1967 and then as Chairman of the Board until 1972.

Lauris Norstad died of cardiac arrest on September 12, 1988. His resting place is in Section 2, Grave 4954, in Arlington National Cemetery .

Norstad is considered the architect of the US Air Force and NATO's air force .

Awards

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

literature

Robert S. Jordan: Norstad. Cold-War NATO Supreme Commander. Airman, strategist, diplomat. Macmillan et al., Basingstoke et al. 2000, ISBN 0-312-22670-5 .
Gregory W. Pedlow : Three Hats for Berlin: General Lauris Norstad and the Second Berlin Crisis, 1958–62 . In: John PS Gearson , Kori Schake (Ed.): The Berlin wall crisis: Perspectives on Cold War Alliances (= Cold War history series ). Palgrave Macmillan, New York 2002, ISBN 0-333-92960-8 , p. 175 ff.

Web links

Irmgard Zündorf: Lauris Norstad. Tabular curriculum vitae in the LeMO ( DHM and HdG )
Biography at Arlington National Cemetery
Lauris Norstad in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Individual evidence

↑ Interview in the CBS documentation "The 20th Century" from September 1962 If there is any question about our willingness or our ability to use these atomic weapons, it is my judgment that we have lost a great part of the deterrent effect which is the important thing.

predecessor	Office	successor
Alfred M. Gruenther	Supreme Allied Commander Europe 1956–1963	Lyman L. Lemnitzer

personal data
SURNAME	Norstad, Lauris
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American military, Supreme Allied Commander Europe
DATE OF BIRTH	March 24, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH	Minneapolis , Minnesota
DATE OF DEATH	September 12, 1988
Place of death	Tucson , Arizona

[1] Interview in the CBS documentation "The 20th Century" from September 1962 If there is any question about our willingness or our ability to use these atomic weapons, it is my judgment that we have lost a great part of the deterrent effect which is the important thing.