US Air Force General. He was a former Vice Chief of the US Air Force from 1972 until 1973. Born Horace Milton Wade, he graduated from high school in Wortham, Texas and enrolled at the Magnolia Agricultural and Mechanical Junior College (now Southern Arkansas University) at Magnolia, Arkansas, and graduated in 1936. His military career began in 1934 when he became a member of Company D, 153rd Infantry Regiment, Arkansas National Guard. In 1937 he entered the Army Air Corps Flying School at Randolph Field (now Randolph Air Force Base, as part of Joint Base San Antonio), Texas in 1937. Upon graduating in October 1938, he received his wings and was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant, Air Corps Reserve, U.S. Army. He was then assigned to the 11th Bombardment Squadron, 7th Bombardment Group, Hamilton Field, California (now closed), and in December 1941, when the US declared war on Japan, he was deployed with this unit to the Southwest Pacific. He also served in the China-Burma-India and the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatres of operations, accumulating 36 combat missions in B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator aircraft before returning to the US in 1943. He then served a short tour as commander of the 29th Bombardment Group, Gowen Field (now Gowen Air National Guard Base), Idaho, and after a few months as a tactical air inspector for the 2nd Air Force, he was transferred to the War Department General Staff, Washington DC in July 1944. In March 1946 he was assigned to Headquarters Air Transport Command in Washington DC as the Deputy Chief of Staff. In February 1948 he received his Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Arkansas. He then joined the Strategic Air Command in August 1949 and served with the 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, and the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, before being named commander of the 301st Bombardment Wing at Barksdale in February 1951. In June 1955 he completed the National War College at Fort McNair, Washington DC and was then assigned as the Director of Personnel, Headquarters Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska. In the summer of 1959, he was designated the commander of the 4310th Air Division, Nouasseur Air Base, Morocco, and in October 1961, was assigned as deputy commander, 8th Air Force at Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts. In August 1962 he returned to Headquarters US Air Force in Washington, DC to serve as the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Programs. In December 1964, he returned to Westover Air Force Base to serve as commander of 8th Air Force, and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. In August 1966, he returned to Headquarters US Air Force as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel. In August 1968 he was designated as Commander-in-Chief, United States Air Forces in Europe at Wiesbaden, Air Base, Germany, and concurrently as commander, Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force, Allied Command Europe, and was promoted to rank of general. The following February, he was appointed Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. In 1972 he returned to the US and became the Vice Chief of Staff of the US Air Force, on May 1, 1972 and retired from this position with 36 years of continued reserve and active military service in the US Army Air Corps and US Air Force. Among his military decorations and awards include Air Force Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Silver Star, the Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the Air Medal with oak leaf cluster. He died in Tucson Arizona at the age of 85. The General Horace M. Wade Innovation Award, an annual recognition of an individual who has initiated innovative change that enhances operation support to the war fighter, was named in his honor.