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This Remembrance Profile was originally created by Sgt Stephen Willcox - Deceased
Contact Info
Last Address Augusta, Georgia
Date of Passing Sep 17, 2011
Location of Interment Oakwood Cemetery - Raleigh, North Carolina
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Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Colonel Thomas Marshall Tilley retired from the Air Force in 1970. He was a command pilot with 4500 flying hours. After retirement he was employed at the University of Northern Colorado where he administered graduate programs for Colorado Springs from 1973-1983.
Colonel Tilley is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina. He was laid to rest with full military honors on September 19, 2011.
Other Comments:
"Name: Thomas M. Tilley
Birth Year: 1918
Nativity or State or Country: North Carolina
County or City: Durham
Enlistment Date: 26 Apr 1941
Enlistment State: North Carolina
Enlistment City: Fort Bragg
Branch: Air Corps
Grade Code: Aviation Cadet
Component: Regular Army
Source: Civil Life
Education: 3 years of college
Civil Occupation: Actors and actresses
Marital Status: Single, without dependents
Height: 68
Weight: 163" Source: U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, Ancestry.com
The 57th Fighter Group left Quonset Point, Rhode Island on July 1, 1942 with pilots and P-40 aircraft aboard the USS Ranger. About 100 miles off the coast of Africa, the pilots took off in 72 Warhawks and flew to Accra, Gold Coast. This was the first fighter group to takeoff from a carrier in land based fighter planes. In stages they moved across Africa to Palestine. They arrived in the Mediterranian Theatre of Operations on July 30, 1942, the first American fighter group in Africa and the MTO. Their first mission to support the British in Egypt was on August 9, 1942. They later fought in the Battle of El Alamein, as well in the "Palm Sunday Massacre" over Cape Bon, Tunisa. The 57th, along with their cover spitfires, destroyed 59 JU-52's, 14 Me-109s, 2 Me 110s, all within a ten minute battle. While on his tour, Thomas Tilley flew 70 combat missions. During the 1950's he commanded two fighter squadrons of F-102s and later held positions in NORAD, Chicago Air Defense Section, and Alaskan Air Command.
The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the military aviation arm of the United States of America between 1926 and 1941. The statutory administrative forerunner of the United States Air Force, it was renamed from the earlier United States Army Air Service on 2 July 1926 and part of the larger United States Army. The Air Corps was the immediate predecessor of the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), established on 20 June 1941. Although discontinued as an administrative echelon during World War II, the Air Corps (AC) remained as one of the combat arms of the Army until 1947, when it was legally abolished by legislation establishing the Department of the Air Force.
The Air Corps was renamed by the United States Congress largely as a compromise between the advocates of a separate air arm and those of the traditionalist Army high command who viewed the aviation arm as an auxiliary branch to support the ground forces. Although its members worked to promote the concept of air power and an autonomous air force between the years between the world wars, its primary purpose by Army policy remained support of ground forces rather than independent operations.
On 1 March 1935, still struggling with the issue of a separate air arm, the Army activated the General Headquarters Air Force for centralized control of aviation combat units within the continental United States, separate from but coordinate with the Air Corps. The separation of the Air Corps from control of its combat units caused problems of unity of command that became more acute as the Air Corps enlarged in preparation for World War II. This was resolved by the creation of the Army Air Forces (AAF), making both organizations subordinate to the new higher echelon.
The Air Corps ceased to have an administrative structure after 9 March 1942, but as "the permanent statutory organization of the air arm, and the principal component of the Army Air Forces," the overwhelming majority of personnel assigned to the AAF were members of the Air Corps.
