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Contact Info
Home Town Monroe, Wisconsin
Last Address San Antonio, Texas
Date of Passing Mar 29, 1982
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
General, USAF. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Born in Monroe, Wisconsin, the son of Maizie Barber and Clarence Twining. His family then moved to Oregon, and in 1916, he joined the National Guard, serving with the Third Oregon Infantry. Rising to the rank of first sergeant in the Guard, he won appointment to the US Military Academy in 1917. Because of an accelerated wartime program, he graduated in November 1918 as a second lieutenant of Infantry. After the Armistice, he remained at the Academy as an officer cadet until June 1919. He was then posted to Germany as a military observer. He attended Infantry School at Fort Benning in September 1919, and was graduated in June 1920. He attended flight school in 1923, and transferred to the Army Air Service in 1926. In February 1929, he joined the 18th Pursuit Group at Schofield Barracks. He was posted to Fort Crockett in March 1932, and was assigned to the Third Attack Group as a squadron commander. In August he joined the 90th Attack Squadron and a month later, the 60th Service Squadron. In 1935, he attended the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field. After he completed training, and the Army Command and General Staff School, he was assigned Air Corps Technical Supervisor at the San Antonio Air Depot. In August 1940, he was reassigned to the Office of the Chief of Air Corps in Washington, D.C. He joined the Operations Division in December 1941, and in 1942, he was appointed director of War Organization and Movements. In July of that year, he was appointed chief of staff to Major General M.F. Harmon, commanding general of the U.S. Army Forces in the South Pacific. In January 1943, he assumed command of the Thirteenth Air Force, and in February was promoted to major general. His B-17 was forced down by weather in the Coral Sea off the New Hebrides on February 26th, 1943. He and his crew spent five days adrift before being rescued. In late 1943, he was transferred to the Mediterranean theater, where he assumed command of the Fifteenth Air Force and the Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Forces. In June 1945, he received a promotion to lieutenant general and returned to the Pacific Theater as Commander of the Twentieth Air Force. He directed the final air strikes against Japan. After VJ Day, he returned to the United States in October 1945. After the formation of the US Air Force in 1947, he was appointed Commanding General of the Alaskan Department and Commander-in-Chief of the Alaskan Command. He was promoted to major general in February 1948. In July 1950, he returned to Washington and was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel at Air Force Headquarters. In October, he was appointed Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force and promoted to full general. In June 1953, he was named Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, and he became the third Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 15 August 1957; the first Air Force officer to serve in that capacity, where he was an advocate of air power and military preparedness. He retired in September 1960, and took a position with the publishing firm Holt, Rinehart, and Winston from which he published 'Neither Liberty Nor Safety: A Hard Look at US Military Policy and Strategy' in 1966. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1976.
