This Military Service Page was created/owned by
AB Raymond Guinn
to remember
Banfill, Charles Yawkey, Brig 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 Bonifay, FL
Date of Passing Mar 14, 1966
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
Appointed a second lieutenant in the Signal Reserve in March 1918, General Banfill was assigned as an instructor at Camp Dick, Texas, going to Gorstner Field, La., a month later. From September 1918 to July 1919 he served as an instructor at Carlstrom Field, Fla., and then joined the Fourth Aero Squadron at Mitchel Field, N.Y. Going to Hawaii in January 1920 he served with the Fourth Observation Squadron at Luke Field, joining the 21st Balloon Company at Fort Kamehameha that October, and becoming assistant to the Hawaiian Department officer in June 1922.
Entering the Air Corps Technical School at Chanute Field, Ill., in March 1923, General Banfill graduated that November and joined the 24th Photo Section at Brooks Field, Texas, later becoming a flying instructor there. From July 1927 to May 1928 he was at Duncan Field, Texas in charge of filming the motion picture "Flying Cadet", and then returned to Brooks Field. Two months later he went to Logan Field, Md., as an instructor of air units for the 29th Division of the Maryland National Guard.
Entering the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Ala., in August 1934, General Banfill graduated the following June, and a year later he graduated from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He was then ordered to Washington, D.C., for duty with the Operations Section, Office of the Chief of Air Corps, on Air Corps photo-mapping. In August 1938 he took part in the Army flight to Colombia, South America. Entering the Army War College in September 1939, he graduated the following June and was assigned for duty in the Office of the Chief of Air Corps.
Assigned as Air Corps representative with the Engineer Board at Fort Belvoir, Va., in July 1940, during that October and November General Banfill attended a special course in assault operation technique at the Engineer School there. In January 1941 he became chief of the Geographic Section, Military Intelligence Division, War Department General Staff, and in June 1942 he was appointed commandant of the Military Intelligence Training Center at Camp Richie, Md.
Korean War
From Month/Year
June / 1950
To Month/Year
July / 1953
Description The Korean War; 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) began when North Korea invaded South Korea. The United Nations, with the United States as the principal force, came to the aid of South Korea. China came to the aid of North Korea, and the Soviet Union gave some assistance.
Korea was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the closing days of World War II. In August 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan, as a result of an agreement with the United States, and liberated Korea north of the 38th parallel. U.S. forces subsequently moved into the south. By 1948, as a product of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, Korea was split into two regions, with separate governments. Both governments claimed to be the legitimate government of all of Korea, and neither side accepted the border as permanent. The conflict escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces—supported by the Soviet Union and China—moved into the south on 25 June 1950. On that day, the United Nations Security Council recognized this North Korean act as invasion and called for an immediate ceasefire. On 27 June, the Security Council adopted S/RES/83: Complaint of aggression upon the Republic of Korea and decided the formation and dispatch of the UN Forces in Korea. Twenty-one countries of the United Nations eventually contributed to the UN force, with the United States providing 88% of the UN's military personnel.
After the first two months of the conflict, South Korean forces were on the point of defeat, forced back to the Pusan Perimeter. In September 1950, an amphibious UN counter-offensive was launched at Inchon, and cut off many of the North Korean troops. Those that escaped envelopment and capture were rapidly forced back north all the way to the border with China at the Yalu River, or into the mountainous interior. At this point, in October 1950, Chinese forces crossed the Yalu and entered the war. Chinese intervention triggered a retreat of UN forces which continued until mid-1951.
After these reversals of fortune, which saw Seoul change hands four times, the last two years of conflict became a war of attrition, with the front line close to the 38th parallel. The war in the air, however, was never a stalemate. North Korea was subject to a massive bombing campaign. Jet fighters confronted each other in air-to-air combat for the first time in history, and Soviet pilots covertly flew in defense of their communist allies.
The fighting ended on 27 July 1953, when an armistice was signed. The agreement created the Korean Demilitarized Zone to separate North and South Korea, and allowed the return of prisoners. However, no peace treaty has been signed, and the two Koreas are technically still at war. Periodic clashes, many of which are deadly, have continued to the present.