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Major General Milton B. Adams is chief of staff, Headquarters Pacific Air Forces, Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii.
General Adams was born at Eagle Pass, Texas, in 1917. He completed high school in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1934 and entered the U.S. Military Academy the following year. He graduated in 1939, and was assigned to Kelly Field, Texas, where he received his pilot wings in 1940.
He served with the 22nd Pursuit Squadron at Langley Field, Va., Puerto Rico and Trinidad from 1940 to 1943. After a short tour as commander of the 328th Fighter Group at Hamilton Field, Calif., he went to the Southwest Pacific in October 1943 where he commanded the 18th Fighter Group until July 1945 when he returned to the United States after flying 275 combat missions.
Eighteen months later he was assigned to Tehran, Iran, as advisor to the Imperial Iranian Air Force, where he served until early 1949. In 1950 General Adams graduated from the Air War College. After a brief tour with the Air Tactical School, he served successively as faculty member of the Air War College; director of the Squadron Officer Course and director of the Field Officer Course of the Air University. In 1954 he went to the National War College and graduated in 1955.
He then commanded the Basic Jet Flying School at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas, for two years, and the Advanced School for Tactical Fighter Pilots at Williams Air Force Base, Ariz., for two years. General Adams was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force in September 1959, as deputy assistant chief of staff for guided missiles. He subsequently served as director of the Joint Secretariat for the Secretary of the Air Force's Designated Systems Management Group and the Air Staff Weapons Board and later as the director of systems acquisition, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Systems and Logistics.
In November 1962, General Adams was assigned to the Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, as assistant chief of staff for plans. Upon his return to the United States in September 1965, he was assigned to Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., as commander of the Tactical Reconnaissance Center.
His next assignment was as deputy director for forces, Defense Communications Planning Group, Washington, D.C. He held that position from September 1966 until December 1967 when he was designated commander, Headquarters Command, U.S. Air Force.
General Adams became chief of staff, Headquarters Pacific Air Forces in July 1968.
Description November 15, 1961-March 1, 1965 .
On November 15, 1961, the 2d Advanced Echelon (2d ADVON) was activated in Saigon, capital of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam). The 2d ADVON, administratively part of the Thirteenth Air Force, controlled USAF units operating in Vietnam and reported to the Military Assistance Advisory Group, Vietnam. The 4400th Combat Crew Training Squadron's FARM GATE detachment arrived on November 16. The FARM GATE, organization, although trained for counter insurgency combat, for about 2 months limited its mission to training Vietnamese aircrews and supporting with reconnaissance flights the operations of the Vietnamese Air Force (VNAF). Activation of the 2d ADVON and arrival of the FARM GATE detachment heralded the buildup of the United States Air Force presence in Vietnam.
Responding to the Republic of Vietnam's appeal in December 1961 for increased military aid to counter Communist (Viet Cong) insurgents, the United States gradually increased its forces. From January 2 to 5, 1962, for example, the USAF moved a tactical air control system to South Vietnam and landed equipment and personnel at Tan Son Nhut Air Base (AB) in Saigon; Bien Hoa AB, I5 miles north of Saigon; Da Nang AB, 375 miles northeast of Saigon; Pleiku AB, in the Central Highlands 230 miles northeast of Saigon; and Nha Trang AB, on the coast, a little less than 200 miles northeast of Saigon. Shortly afterwards, on January 7, a flight of C-l23s equipped for aerial spray missions arrived at Tan Son Nhut. Code-named RANCH HAND, this USAF detachment 3 days later began defoliation operations that continued for 9 years.
To manage U.S. forces in Vietnam, the Commander in Chief, Pacific Command, at the direction of President John F. Kennedy and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, created Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) on February 8, 1962. Army Gen. Paul D. Harkins was named the first Commander of MACV. The 2d ADVON became the air component of the new command. A few months later, on October 8, the USAF activated the 2d Air Division, which replaced the 2d ADVON. In spite of increased U.S. aid, the Viet Cong insurgency grew, and the government of South Vietnam faced growing civil disorder. A year later, on November 1, 1963, a group of South Vietnamese military officers deposed President Ngo Dinh Diem in a coup détat, and not until June 1965 would the South Vietnamese establish a reasonably stable government. Meanwhile, on June 20, 1964, Anny Gen. William C. Westmoreland became Commander of MACV.
Communist insurgents also operated actively in Laos, and in May 1964 United States involvement in Southeast Asia expanded to include military aid to that country. On June 9, F-100s flying from Takhli Air Base, Thailand, about 110 miles north of Bangkok, made the first USAF strike in Laos. Air Force pilots bombed an antiaircraft installation at Xiangkhoang, on the Plain of Jars, about 100 miles northeast of Vientiane, the Laotian capital. In December 1964 the USAF launched an air interdiction campaign against the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a network of roads, trails, and waterways in the southern Laotian panhandle.
The nature of the conflict in Southeast Asia changed dramatically in late 1964. On August 2 and 4 torpedo boats from North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) attacked U.S. naval vessels in the Gulf of Tonkin- On the 5th, U.S. naval aircraft launched retaliatory air strikes against coastal targets in North Vietnam. That same day the USAF deployed B-57s to Bien Hoa AB and F-100s to Da Nang AB. Then in December 1964 the Viet Cong used conventional field rather than hit-and-run tactics to drive South Vietnamese forces temporarily from Binh Gia, near the coast, only 40 miles southeast of Saigon. For both North and South Vietnam governmental authorities this battle marked an escalation of the conflict. As the war rapidly intensified, on February 7, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson ordered American dependents evacuated from South Vietnam. The same day the Viet Cong shelled Pleiku Air Base. In retaliation, the USAF conducted its first raid against North Vietnam on the 8th,
hitting a target just north of the 17th parallel.
