Last Primary AFSC/MOS
AAF MOS 2120-Administrative Officer
Last AFSC Group
Adjutant General (Enlisted)
Service Years
1942 - 1979
Last Photo
Personal Details
Home State
Tennessee
Year of Birth 1922
This Military Service Page was created/owned by
AB Raymond Guinn
to remember
Theus, Lucius, 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 Madison County
Date of Passing Oct 15, 2007
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
During World War II, General Theus entered the Army Air Corps as a private in December 1942. After basic training, he attended the Army Administration School at Atlanta University. For the remainder of World War II, he served as an administrative clerk, chief clerk, and first sergeant of preaviation cadet and basic training squadrons at Keesler Field, Miss.
He then entered Officer Candidate School, graduating second in his class with a commission as second lieutenant in January 1946. Following a one-year tour of duty as squadron adjutant at Tuskegee Army Air Field, Ala., General Theus went to Lockbourne Air Force Base, Ohio, as base statistical control officer. In August 1949 he was transferred to Erding Air Depot, Germany, where he served as the analysis and presentation officer, and later commander of the Statistical Control Flight and depot statistical control officer.
General Theus was assigned in August 1952 to the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Comptroller, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C., where he was chief of the Materiel Logistics Statistics Branch.
In October 1957 General Theus was assigned to Headquarters Central Air Materiel Forces Europe, Chateauroux Air Base, France, as statistica1 services staff officer. He was subsequently appointed technical statistical adviser to the comptroller, Headquarters Air Materiel Forces, Europe.
In January 1959 General Theus was assigned duty as chief of Management Services Office in the Eastern Air Logistics Office, Athens, Greece. In February 1961 he was appointed chief of management analysis, Headquarters Spokane Air Defense Sector, Larson Air Force Base, Wash. In December 1962 General Theus was assigned as base comptroller at Kingsley Field, Ore.
His next assignment was as base comptroller of Cam Ranh Bay Air Base, Republic of Vietnam. For more than five months of this assignment, he also was acting deputy base commander of Cam Ranh Bay Air Base.
Upon his return to the United States in July 1967, General Theus was reassigned to Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Office of the Comptroller of the Air Force, as a data automation staff officer, in the Directorate of Data Automation. He served initially as chief,Technology and Standards Branch; then chief, Plans, Policy and Technology Division; and later chief, Program Management Division.
During that assignment, General Theus also performed additional duty as chairman of the Inter-Service Task Force on Education in Race Relations, Office of the Secretary of Defense. The recommendations of the task force led to establishment of the Defense Race Relations Institute and the Department of Defense-wide education program in race relations. In 1968 he attended the Department of Defense Computer Institute.
In July 1971 General Theus was assigned to the position of director of management analysis, Office of the Comptroller of the Air Force. In June 1972 he was appointed special assistant for social actions, Directorate of Personnel Plans, Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel, Headquarters U.S. Air Force.
On June 10, 1974, he was appointed director of accounting and finance, Office of the Comptroller of the Air Force, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, and commander of the Air Force Accounting and Finance Center, Denver, Colo.
Vietnam War/Cease-Fire Campaign (1972-73)
From Month/Year
March / 1972
To Month/Year
January / 1973
Description
0n March 30, 1972, the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong opened a 3-pronged offensive, with the intention of defeating the Republic of Vietnam and reuniting Vietnam under a Communist regime, in a conventional attack supported with artillery and tarnks, the North Vietnamese crossed the DMZ into Quang Tri Province, occupying Quang Tri, the provincial capital, on May 1 and attacking Hue. In a second thrust, the Communists invaded the Central Highlands from Laos, isolating Kontum and cutting the highway between Pleiku and Qui Nhon. On April 5 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces crossed the border from Cambodia in the third phase of the offensive, capturing Loc Ninh on April 6 and besieging An Loc. By May 8, however, the enemy offensive had stalled; on June 10 the Communists withdrew from Kontum and on the 26th from An Loc. Two days later the Nonh Vietnamese retreated from Quang Tri, and on June 30 the South Vietnamese reopened the road to Pleiku.
U.S. air power contributed significantly to the battle. Although the USAF had reduced its forces in Southeast Asia to half of those present in mid-1968, it moved quickly to augment them. U.S. Navy. Marine. and Army aviation elements joined the USAF to provide airlift. interdiction. tactical reconnaissance, and close air support for the South Vietnamese. A week after the Communist offensive began. on April 6. the United States resumed systematic, sustained bombing of military and industrial targets in North Vietnam as far north as the 20th parallel. The next day Gen. John W. Vogt. Jr., USAF, became the Seventh Air Force Commander. On May 4 South Vietnamese and U.S. leaders suspended peace negotiations in Paris, and 4 days later, the United States imposed a naval blockade of North Vietnam, mining harbors at Haiphong, Vinh, and elsewhere along the coast. The United States also initiated LINEBACKER on May 8 - 1 of the largest air campaigns of the war. Targets included the rebuilt Paul Dourner Bridge in Hanoi, the Thanh Hoa Bridge, rail lines, a petroleum pipeline from China to Hanoi. power plants. marshaling yards, and other strategic and tactical objectives throughout North Vietnam. During Linebacker, on June 28. Gen. Frederick C. Weyand. USA, became the Commander of MACV.
Peace negotiations, suspended for two weeks, resurned in Paris on July 13, Anticipating a successful conclusion to the renewed peace talks. the United States halted the bombing of North Vietnsn above the 20th parallel as of October 23. But when negotiations stalled, the United States conducted an intensive aerial offensive, LINEBACKER ll, from December 18 to 30, against North Vietnam. B-52s and USAF and Navy tactical aircraft bombed Hanoi and Haiphong and their environs around the clock, concentrating on such targets as railyards, power plants, communication facilities, air defense radars, SAM and antiaircraft gun sites, petroleum tank farms, shipping facilities, ammunition dumps, and
MiG bases. On December 30, after peace talks resumed, the United States again ceased bombing north of the 20th parallel.
On January 23, 1973, North Vietnam and the United States agreed to a cease-fire, effective within 5 days. Part of the agreement called for the
North Vietnamese to release prisoners of war while the United States withdrew completely from South Vietnam. From February 12 to March 29, following the Vietnam Ceasefire, North Vietnam released 565 American POWs. ln OPERATION HOMECOMING, the 9th Aeromedical
Evacuation Group flew the POWs from Hanoi to Clark Air Base in the Philippines.
After the Vietnam Ceasefire Campaign, the Royal Laotian government signed a cease-fire agreement with the Pathet Lao on February 21, 1973.
USAF B-52s. nevertheless, flew missions against Communist forces in Cambodia until August 15, 1973, when the U.S. Congress mandated an
end to U.S. bombing in Southeast Asia.
The fighting had ended for American forces, but the Communists, resupplied and reequipped, soon escalated the ground war throughout
Southeast Asia. Within 2 years, on April 17. 1975. the Khmer Rougeoccupied all of Cambodia. On April 30 North Vietnam conquered South
Vietnam and unified the country. And on December 3, 1975, the Pathet Lao seized power in Laos, marking an end to an era of U.S. influence
in Southeast Asia.
