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Contact Info
Home Town Middletown, Kentucky
Last Address San Antonio, Texas
Date of Passing Feb 01, 2001
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
William J. Meng was born at North Middletown, Ky., in 1917. He attended High School in North Middletown where he graduated in 1935. He entered Transylvania College in 1935 and completed three years majoring in economics. He participated in the University of Maryland off-duty education program while on active duty in the Washington, D.C. area.
In November 1939 he entered the U. S. Army Air Corps as an aviation cadet. He completed flying training in August 1940 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve Aug. 30, 1940.
After flying training his first assignment was the Panama Canal Zone where he served as an A-20 pilot and squadron engineering officer.
Captain Meng's next assignment was Lake Charles, La., as an A-20 squadron commander.
In January 1944 he was transferred to the European Theater of Operations where he served as an A-20 squadron commander, deputy group commander of an A-26 group and later as air inspector of the 9th Bomber Command. While leading the A-20 group on the late D-Day mission over France he received wounds from 88 mm flack.
During his tour in the European Theater of Operations, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with eight oak leaf clusters and the Purple Heart. Returning to the Zone of Interior after World War II, Lieutenant Colonel Meng was assigned duty as the air inspector, 311th Reconnaissance Wing at Buckley Field, Colo.
His next assignment was commander of the 7th Geodetic Survey Squadron. The mission of this squadron was geodetic survey using SHORAN equipment. To perform this mission the squadron was assigned B-29s, B-17s, OA-10s, C-47s and helicopters.
From July 1948 to December 1949 he attended the Air Command and Staff School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
After Command and Staff School, January 1950 to January 1951, Lieutenant Colonel Meng assumed the duties of inspector general, 2nd Air Force.
In January 1951, Lieutenant Colonel Meng was assigned to the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. The wing was equipped with RB-45, and the first multi-jet unit in the Strategic Air Command. He was deputy for operations and materiel during this assignment. He was promoted to the grade of full colonel, effective Jan. 19, 1951.
The next assignment was as deputy wing commander, 26th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Lockbourne, Ohio.
From Lockbourne, Colonel Meng transferred to Sidi Slimane Air Station, Morocco as director of operations for the 5th Air Division.
He returned from Sidi Slimane back to Lockbourne Air Force Base as commander, 26th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing.
During his tenure as commander, 26th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing, he commanded "Home Run Task Force" at Thule Air Base, Greenland.
Director of personnel for 8th Air Force was the next assignment for Colonel Meng. While with 8th Air Force, Colonel Meng was selected to attend the National War College in Washington, D.C.
After graduation, Colonel Meng was assigned the Strategic Division, Directorate of Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force. After 10 months in this duty he was selected as executive to the vice chief of staff, Headquarters U.S. Air Force.
In June 1963, Colonel Meng assumed the duties of vice commander, U.S. Air Force Tactical Air Reconnaissance Center at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.
On Oct. 9, 1963 he was promoted to the grade of brigadier general.
General Meng flew 250 missions of anti-submarine patrol and amassed 800 combat flying hours in the Caribbean Theater. He flew 50 combat missions for a total of 170 combat hours in the European Theater of Operations.
1940-1947, AAF MOS 1091, United States Army Air Corps (USAAC)
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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.
