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Contact Info
Home Town Bay City, Michigan
Last Address Washington, DC
Date of Passing Sep 21, 1938
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
He was rated as a balloon observer, airship pilot, airplane pilot, and airplane observer. He was Chief of the Air Corps from Dec 22, 1935 until he was killed in an airplane accident near the Lockheed plant at Burbank, CA., when his plane burst into flames on landing.
The former Westover AFB (now ARB), MA was named for him.
His ADSM citation: Awarded for actions during World War I
The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Lieutenant Colonel (Air Service) Oscar Westover, United States Army Air Service, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I. Lieutenant Colonel Westover served in turn as Signal Officer, Port of Embarkation, Hoboken, New Jersey, Chief of Storage Department, Signal Corps, and Chief of Storage and Traffic Division, Bureau of Aeronautical Production, Air Service. By his great initiative, painstaking attention to details, exceptional ability, and untiring efforts he installed and developed with conspicuous success at all ports of embarkation a complete system of keeping records of shipment of Signal Corps and Air Service property for overseas. His services were of inestimable value to the Government in a position of great responsibility.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 14 (1923)
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.