LeMay, Curtis

LeMay, Curtis (Emerson)

(1906–90) aviator; born in Columbus, Ohio. Commissioned in 1928 from the Reserve Officers' Training Corps at Ohio State University, he earned a reputation as an excellent pilot during the 1930s. From August 1944 he commanded the heavy bomber force that carried out long-range attacks on the Japanese home islands; he helped plan the atomic bomb missions of August 1945. He directed the U.S. airlift of supplies to Berlin in 1948, he led the Strategic Air Command, and he served as Air Force chief of staff (1961–65). An outspoken "hawk" on Vietnam, he ran for vice-president on George Wallace's independent ticket in 1968.