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 Hillsboro, Texas
Last Address Washington, DC
Date of Passing Apr 14, 1983
Location of Interment Arlington National Cemetery (VLM) - Arlington, Virginia
On Jul 6, 1928, Richard Carmichael enlisted in the Texas National Guard and was honorably discharged on Jul 5, 1932 so as to enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. His flight training was with the Army Air Corps at Kelly Field where he received his Pilot Wings.
In April of 1944 then Colonel Carmichel deployed to India until he was shot down over Japan and taken a Prisoner of War on Aug 20, 1944. On Aug 29, 1945 he was repatriated. He was hospitalized for his injuries at San Antonio, TX from about Aug of 1945 to Feb of 1946. From Mar to Aug 1946 he was an Administrative Officer at Wright Field, OH. He attended Air Command and Staff School at Maxwell Field, AL and after completion remained at Air University as Chief of the Air Power Employment Branch until Jun 1949, after which he joined the 11th Bomb Group as Commander as depicted on the right panel. He medically retired from the U.S. Air Force on Jan 19, 1961 while he was Commandant of the Air Command and Staff College with Air University at Maxwell AFB, AL.
First Award of the Distinguished Service Cross:
"Carmichael, Richard H. (POW)
The President of the United States takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to Richard H. Carmichael, Lieutenant Colonel (Air Corps), U.S. Army Air Forces, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an armed enemy while serving as Pilot of a B-17 Heavy Bomber and Commander of the 19th Bombardment Group (H), Fifth Air Force, while participating in a bombing mission on 7 August 1942, against enemy ground targets in the Southwest Pacific Area. On this date, as Commander of the 19th Bombardment Group, Lieutenant Colonel Carmichael led sixteen B-17 bombers in a daring daylight, high-level raid over Rabaul. After dropping his bombs, Colonel Carmichaels' bomber was attacked,during which a crewman was wounded and the oxygen system was shot out. Colonel Carmichael dove to a lower level, evading enemy attackers until he could find the safety of the clouds and return to his base. The Personal courage and devotion to duty displayed by Lieutenant Colonel Carmichael on this occasion have upheld the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, the 5th Air Force, and the United States Army Air Forces. Headquarters: South West Pacific Area, General Orders No. 27 (1942)"
Note: The second Distinguished Service Cross (Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster) was awarded in 1945 for actions while he was a pilot with the 462d Bombardment Group, 20th Air Force.
Other Comments:
World War II/China-India-Burma Theater/India-Burma Campaign (1942-45)
From Month/Year
April / 1942
To Month/Year
January / 1945
Description (India-Burma Campaign 2 April 1942 to 28 January 1945) China Burma India Theater (CBI) was an umbrella term, used by the United States military during World War II for the China and Southeast Asian or India-Burma (IBT) theaters. Operational command of Allied forces (including US forces) in the CBI was officially the responsibility of the Supreme Commanders for South East Asia or China. However: US forces in practice were usually overseen by General Joseph Stilwell, the Deputy Allied Commander in China; the term "CBI" was significant in logistical, material and personnel matters; it was and is commonly used within the US for these theaters.
Well-known US (or joint Allied) units in the CBI included the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the Flying Tigers, transport and bomber units flying the Hump, the 1st Air Commando Group, the engineers who built Ledo Road, and the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), popularly known as "Merrill's Marauders".
"We got a hell of a beating," Lt. Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell told the crowd of reporters in the Indian capital of New Delhi. It was May 1942, and the American general, who had only recently arrived in the Far East to assume the position of chief of staff to Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, was chafing at failure in his first command in the field. Following the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the previous December, the Japanese had won victory after victory, extending their empire from Wake Island in the Pacific to Malaya and Singapore in Southeast Asia. When Stilwell had arrived in the embattled Chinese capital of Chungking in March, the Japanese were already driving into Burma, capturing the capital of Rangoon on 6 March. The American general took command of two Chinese divisions and, in cooperation with the British and Indians, tried to stem the Japanese onslaught. Defeated, he and his staff endured a rugged, 140-mile hike over jungle-covered mountains to India. By occupying Burma, the Japanese had not only gained access to vast resources of teak and rubber, but they had dosed the Burma Road, 700 miles of dirt highway that represented China's last overland link with the outside world. The reopening of an overland route to China would be the major American goal, indeed obsession, in the theater throughout the campaign.
Strategic Setting
The objective of restoring a land route to China originated in part in hard strategic considerations, specifically the need to keep China in the war to tie down Japanese troops and serve as a base for future operations against the Japanese home islands. But it also reflected an idealistic American view of China as a great power, capable of a major contribution, and the romantic image held by many Americans of China's heroic struggle against superior Japanese equipment and arms. For nearly three years the United States would thus push for a major effort to break the Japanese blockade, forward large quantities of lend-lease materials, and train the fledgling Chinese Army and Air Force.