This Military Service Page was created/owned by
SSgt Robert Bruce McClelland, Jr.
to remember
Anderson, Orvil Arson, Maj Gen USAF(Ret).
If you knew or served with this Airman and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Home Town Butte, Montana
Last Address Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama
Date of Passing Aug 23, 1965
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
He was born Orvil Orson but an Army clerical error changed his middle name to Arson. As a young officer he was a pioneer in balloon flight. Later in his career he was a great combat leader in WWII and then a prolific and creative thinker in the planning of the future USAF.
His ADSM (2nd of 2) citation: Awarded for actions during World War II The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a Second Award of the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Major General Orvil Arson Anderson (AFSN: 32A/ASN: 0-11479), United States Army Air Forces, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility as Deputy Commander for Operations, EIGHTH Air Force, from June 1944 to April 1945. Displaying rare professional skill, General Anderson planned and supervised the operations of the Air Force during the crucial period when its mission was to maintain air superiority and supremacy over the German Air Force while simultaneously continuing the basic mission of destroying the enemy production and transportation facilities so vital to the German war machine all of which activities were designated to make possible successful ground operations with a minimum of loss. He coordinated and carefully timed the attacks against enemy airfields within striking distance of the front to cover the Allied armies crossing the Rhine, and by close cooperation with the Royal Air Force and the United States NINTH Air Force, sealed off the Ruhr by the destruction of enemy railroad bridges. The ability, foresight and astute judgment displayed by General Anderson contributed materially to the successful outcome of the campaign.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 48 (1945)
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Captain (Air Corps) Orvil Arson Anderson, U.S. Army Air Corps, for extraordinary achievement while participating in an aerial flight. Captain Anderson was scientific observer of the National Geographic Society Army Air Corps Stratosphere Balloon Flight, which took of from the vicinity of Rapid City, South Dakota, July 29, 1934, and landed near Loomis, Nebraska, that same date. He assisted in piloting the balloon into the stratosphere to an altitude of 60,613 feet, and in making continuous scientific observations en route, and when the balloon became disabled through circumstances beyond human control, did attempt, under most adverse and hazardous conditions, to land successfully the disabled aircraft in order to preserve the scientific records that had been obtained. By the exercise of cool judgment and foresight under these conditions, certain scientific records were saved and the disabled aircraft was abandoned only when it was clearly evident not to do so would prove disastrous to human life.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 3 (1935)
The VIII Bomber Command is an inactive United States Army Air Forces unit that is better known as the later appellation Eighth Air Force, as was popularized in post-World War II films—and is frequently called the First Eighth Air Force by its veterans and successors in the services.
The command was the first strategic bombing organisation sent to England as the United States Armed Forces joined the war against the axis powers in early 1942. The Army Air Forces were the earliest forces that could be arrayed by the United States to directly attack the fascist regimes attempting land grabs as imperial powers. Its last assignment was being renamed as the Eighth Air Force, and throughout the war it was stationed at High Wycombe, England. The designation 8th Bomber Command was inactivated on 22 February 1944. VIII Bomber Command was the heavy bombardment arm of Eighth Air Force—which also came to include a large intelligence, photo interpretation, and mission planning staff in the early days of the strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany and Nazi-controlled Occupied Europe. Its primary mission was to attack and destroy strategic targets to cripple the Nazi industrial base in Northern Europe which supported their armed forces. With the advent of the invasion of Fortress Europe, a controversy developed between continuing that effort, or switching to bombing transportation networks leading into western France from the German frontier.
The command was inactivated and its units redesignated as Eighth Air Force as a result of a reorganization of the Army Air Forces in the European and Mediterranean theaters. Its subsequent unit became one of the initial two Numbered Air Forces of Strategic Air Command in 1946, and in 1992 became a major component of the United States Air ForceAir Combat Command.
