Ewbank, John N., 1912-

John N. Ewbank (b. 1912) was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and attended St. Olaf College and the University of Minnesota before entering Flying School as an aviation cadet in 1939 at Randolph and Kelly Fields, Texas. In May, 1940, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant, and served as a flight commander with the 22nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field, Virginia before being deployed overseas during World War II. He was assigned to the Southwest Pacific area, and was stationed in Australia and New Guinea as he flew strikes against Japanese targets in B-26 aircrafts. He saw action in the Pacific Theater at the Battle of the Coral Sea, and at Rabaul and Lea, and flew close support missions for Allied ground forces in the battle for Burma. He was reassigned in 1943 to the Third Air Force and carried out assignments with several units at Barksdale Field, Louisiana, Morris Field, North Carolina, and Greenville, South Carolina. After the war in 1946, Ewbank was among the first attendees of the Air Command and Staff School of the new Air University at Maxwell Field, Alabama. Upon graduation in 1947, he was assigned as Chief of the Air Section and Senior Air Force Instructor at the Army Ground General School at Fort Riley, Kansas. During the Korean Conflict, Ewbank commanded the Andersen AFB at Guam, and served as Deputy Commander of the 19th Bombardment Wing, which flew B-29 combat missions to Korean via Okinawa. In 1952, he attended the National War College at Washington, D.C., and would graduate a year later and begin a series of administrative and command assignments at Headquarters, U.S. Air Force. In July, 1957, he was sent to Europe as Commander of the 38th Bombardment Wing based at Laon Air Base, France. He would serve briefly in England before returning to the U.S. to command several outfits at Nellis AFB, Nevada, and at Langley AFB, Virginia. In 1965, Ewbank was sent to Vietnam to assume the position of Assistant Chief of Staff for Plans, U.S. Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV). In 1966, he was named Chief of Staff to General William Westmoreland, and would eventually be named MACV Commander in Chief. In August of 1967, he returned to the United States and was assigned as Director of the Combat Operations Center at Headquarters, North American Air Defense Command and Continental Air Defense Command, Ent AFB, Colorado. He served with the U.S. Strike Command and the U.S. Readiness Command just prior to his retirement from active duty on July 1, 1972. Ewbank's career decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with three oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross, Distinguished Unit Citation Emblem with oak leaf cluster, and the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon which was awarded to the 38th Bombardment Wing while it was under his command.