Emmons, Delos C. (Delos Carleton), 1888-1965

Delos Carleton Emmons (1888-1965) was born in Huntingdon, West Virginia, and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated in June, 1909, and received his commission as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry. Early assignments included service at the Presidio, San Francisco, California, Fort Gibbon, Alaska, and Plattsburgh Barracks, New York. He was promoted to First Lieutenant in July, 1916, and was assigned to the Army Signal Corps'' Aviation Section for pilot training in August, 1916. He became a junior military aviator and was promoted to Captain in July, 1917. Following assignments at the Western Department in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Dayton, Ohio, Emmons transferred to the Army Air Service, and later completed the Air Service Course at Harvard University. Throughout the 1920s, Emmons served in administrative and command roles at a variety of Army Air Service (later Army Air Corps) installations, including McCook, Crissy, and Rockwell Fields in California. In August, 1927, he returned to Washington, D.C. to serve as Executive Officer for the Chief of the Army Air Corps. He held the same position for the Secretary of War for Air before graduating from both the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, and the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. From 1934 to 1936, Emmons served in Hawaii as Commanding Officer and Air Officer of the 18th Composite Wing of the Air Corps. In July of 1936, he was transferred to March Field, California, where he became Commander of the 1st Wing. He later assumed command of the Headquarters Air Force at Langley Field, Virginia. In August of 1940, Emmons was among a team of officers sent to London in a military assistance and observation role with the British and French Air Forces. On December 17, 1941, ten days after the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, he was transferred back to Hawaii to serve as Commanding General of the Hawaiian Department of the Air Corps. His responsibilities included oversight of the re-building of American air capabilities in the Pacific during the early years of World War II. He returned to the U.S. in 1943, and served as Commanding General at the Presidio, San Francisco, California, headed the Alaskan Department at Fort Richardson until 1946, and became Commandant of the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia in August, 1946. He would remain in this position until he retired from active duty on June 30, 1948. Emmons career distinctions include being the recipient of the following awards and decorations: the Distinguished Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, Legion of Merit, Legion of Merit (Navy), Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal, American Defense Service Medal with Foreign Service Clasp, American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with Bronze Star, World War I Victory Medal, World War II Victory Medal, and the Mexican Border Service Medal. General Emmons died October 3, 1965.

Lieutenant general; United States Air Force; commanding general, Hawaiian Department, 1941-1943; commanding general, Western Defense Command, 1943-1944.