Paul K. Carlton was born in Manchester, New Hampshire in 1921, attended the University of Pittsburgh and Ohio University, and entered the Army Air Corps aviation cadet program in 1941. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant and received his pilot wings in 1942. Carlton served as an instructor pilot until 1944, then flew the B-29 from India and China against the Japanese in World War II. After the war, he was assigned to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) for three years and then spent four years as aide-de-camp to General Curtis LeMay. Subsequent assignments found General Carlton at March Air Force Base, Guam, Castle Air Force Base, and Beale Air Force Base where he commanded the 4126th Strategic Wing. In 1961 he attended the National War College, then assumed command of the 379th Bombardment Wing in Michigan, which was followed by his command of the 305th Bombardment Wing in Indiana in 1963. Carlton was back at SAC in 1965, went to Vandenberg Air Force Base in 1968, and assumed command of the Military Airlift Command (MAC) in 1972. Carlton oversaw efforts of the MAC during the Yom Kippur War in 1973, during the airlift of Vietnamese and Cambodian orphans to the United States, and the airlift evacuation of Vietnamese refugees in 1975. He retired from the Air Force in March of 1977 and died in 2009.
From the description of Paul K. Carlton collection, 1940-2006. (US Air Force Academy). WorldCat record id: 705934320
