h/o Lula Maxwell Andrews; s/o William Thomas and Eliza C. Stevenson Andrews both b AL

James David Andrews had three military sons:

Lt. General Frank Maxwell Andrews after whom Andrews Airforce Base outside of Washington D.C. is named, William Valery Andrews and James David Andrews.

William Lafayette Andrews, Jr., who is related, played with General Andrews' niece, Louise Sikes, in Nashville, when they were children.

James David Andrews's great-uncles on his mother's side of the family were John Calvin Brown, Tennesse Governer and Confederate general and Neill Smith Brown (brothers who were both governors of Tennessee).

The Pulaski Citizen, November 11, 1880 edition

Mr. James D. Andrews, who, for a number of years, has been a most efficient member of the CITIZEN corps, left for Texas this morning on a prospecting tour. If he should succeed in making satisfactory arrangements there he will probably locate, but we hope he will find it to his interest to return, as Pulaski cannot afford to lose a young man of his high moral character and great social worth. Our sincere regard and best wishes will accompany him wherever he may go.

The Pulaski Citizen, December 2, 1880 edition

We are glad to hear that our Mr. Jas. D. Andrews stepped right into a good place upon a Dallas paper the next day after his arrival in Texas. Such men as he is are always in demand at the top.

From Ruth Vreeland, Date: July 17, 2007 at 20:08:16:

A member of the Andrews family in Tennessee just recently sent my parents the following, out of the blue. I offer it here in case it will help anyone out there, researching their Andrews heritage. I only wish it could help our family with some of our own unanswered questions. If anyone can please tell me how this might relate to my own Andrews family, I'd be much obliged. It must, or this distant cousin wouldn't have sent it to my parents!

My father, Joseph E. Andrews, is the great-great-grandson of one Dr. Franklin (Francis) Andrews, born in Kentucky in 1830, and dying in Arkansas in 1922. He was a surgeon in the Civil War. We have no other information about him, other than that he married Mary Young and they had the following children in or near Dover, Tenn: James Henry, Annie, Samuel, Belle, Molly and Johnny (later Mayor of Hope, Arkansas during the 1940's.)

Morman Family Group Record
Husband; F M Andrews
Birth: 1833, Stewart, Tennessee
Marriage: 07 JUN 1858, Stewart, Tennessee

Wife; Mary Young
Birth: 1837, Stewart, Tennessee
Marriage: 07 JUN 1858, Stewart, Tennessee

Anyway, here is the writing sent to my parents, authored by James David Andrews in 1928.

From Ruth Vreeland, Date: July 17, 2007 at 20:08:16:

A member of the Andrews family in Tennessee just recently sent my parents the following, out of the blue. I offer it here in case it will help anyone out there, researching their Andrews heritage. I only wish it could help our family with some of our own unanswered questions. If anyone can please tell me how this might relate to my own Andrews family, I'd be much obliged. It must, or this distant cousin wouldn't have sent it to my parents! My father, Joseph E. Andrews, is the great-great-grandson of one Dr. Franklin (Francis) Andrews, born in Kentucky in 1830, and dying in Arkansas in 1922. He was a surgeon in the Civil War. We have no other information about him, other than that he married Mary Young and they had the following children in or near Dover, Tenn: James Henry, Annie, Samuel, Belle, Molly and Johnny (later Mayor of Hope, Arkansas during the 1940's.)

The Andrews Family
In the year of 1690, William Andrews, who was related to Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of London, England, was a merchant in London. William and Thomas were twins and died at the age of two years. His other two sons were given the same name as their two deceased brothers. When they became twenty-three years of age, and twenty-five years respectively, they came to America and located in the state of Virginia, then a Colony.

It is the Thomas Andrews (of Virginia) branch of the family that is the subject of this sketch. He had two sons, William and John. William was twice married, and was the father of eight children, William, John, Thomas, Winifred, Abram, Lucy, Ephram and Richard. William Andrews, Jr. served in the American Revolution as Sergeant in the Continental Army, and was awarded a grant of land of two hundred acres of land for his services as shown by Book No. 2 at page 57 in the Office of the Secretary of State of Commonwealth of Virginia, which are in the records of Brunswick County, Virginia. He was married to Ann Brooks, and their children were: Ephraim, David, William and Henry. David Andrews, son of William Andrews, Jr., was born about 1765 and married Elizabeth King, October 29, 1787, Brunswick County, Virginia, and then removed to North Carolina and in 1815 removed to Tennessee, first locating in Sumner County and later settling in Stewart County. his children were David, William, Drewry, James, Ben, Polly (Mary), and Henry.

David Andrews, Jr. was born in Virginia in 1793, when he removed to Tennessee with his father. He did not go to Stewart County but went to Giles County to reside. There in 1820 he married Eliza Brown, daughter of Davis Brown. She was born in Brunswick County, Virginia in 1798, and removed to Giles in 1813 with her father, where she died in 1857.
David Andrews, her husband, died in Birmingham, Alabama and was buried there. Children of David Andrews and Eliza Brown Andrews were George W., James David, David Brown, Henry, Beverly Green, William Thomas, Amanda, Ellen, Martha and Sara.

William Thomas Andrews was born in Alabama Sept. 28, 1838, married Eliza Catherine Stevenson, Giles County, Tennessee, Nove. 30th, 1856. Their children were James David, John Beverly, Charles Fletcher, William Brown, Milton, and Ola. W.T. Andrews and wife both died in Birmingham, Alabama and are buried there.

James David Andrews, born Sept. 8, 1857, married Lula Maxwell October 17, 1882. Their children: Frank Maxwell, James David, William Valery, Lea Craighead, and Josephine.

Ben Andrews, son of David Andrews, Sr. was married in Stewart County, Tennessee and resided there until his death. His children were Jane, Sara and William. Henry Andrews, son of David Andrews, Sr. married Rebecca Sexton in Stewart County and settled on a farm near Dover; their children were Emma, Mary, Pinkney, Eliza, Joiner, Missouri, and Marion R.

Marion R. Andrews married Emma McGee. He and his sister Eliza Cole now reside on the farm which their father settled and died.

C. Pinkney (Pink) Andrews, born in Stewart County, Oct. 8, 1836, married Maria Elizabeth Laurie, Jan. 2, 1873, at Paducah, Ky. Lived in Bells, Tennessee.

The authority for the compilation of the above data was derived from sundry sources, with satisfactory warrant for its correctness.

James David Andrews -- Nashville, Tennessee, Sept. 8, 1928

_____________
And I've been studying this letter written by James David Andrews again today... I copied the entire letter, so unfortunately, there is no further information. However, my Grandpa Andrews' cousin (J.D. Garland) who provided this letter to my parents 5 yrs. ago, also gave them 11 other pages, stapled together, which are copies out of a book titled "The Heritage of Montgomery Co., N.C., 1981." (I'd sure love to have the entire book someday!). J.D. Garland is married to one of my Dad's distant Andrews cousins. I'm not sure where J.D. lives, but will try to get that information from my parents soon. They met him at an Andrews family reunion in Paris Tennessee over Memorial Day weekend. I'm not sure where the information came from originally, other than the date at the bottom which is Sept. 8, 1928 -- in this typed letter from James David Andrews. How J.D. and his wife got it, I don't know -- and I also don't know how it possibly relates to our branch of the family, since there are so many unknowns on that part of my family tree. I can't seem to find anyone with information about my great-great-great grandfather, Franklin Andrews, who was a Dr. in the Civil War.

I was able to piece together a BIT more information about my own Andrews family, from one of the articles. I understand now that the typed letter from James David Andrews IS about my Andrews family, so that's very exciting for me. I believe that the two sons who came to America in the early to mid 1700's (William and Thomas) landed in the area of Brunswick, VA, as William's oldest child, William Jr. fought in the Revolutionary War as Sergeant in the Continental Army "and was awarded a grant of land of two-hundred acres of land for his services as shown by Book No. 2 at page 57 in the office of the Secretary of State of the Commonwealth of Virginia, which are in the records of Brunswick County, Virginia." This was James David Andrews' ancestor. I believe Williams's second oldest son John was MY John Andrews of Brunswick, VA, who later moved to Stewart Co., Tenn., as another article speaks more about this John's family, and it ties to mine very well.

Yes, I do believe this letter IS stating that William and Thomas Andrews were the sons of William Andrews, the London merchant in 1690. Is it possible that James David Andrews may have written his letter in a less-than-stellar state of mind, even though he would have only been about 61? Could he have had dates wrong? And no, the William and Thomas who came to America were not twins ... the twins had died at age two, and the younger brothers who were not twins were named for them. If they did come to America at ages 23 and 25, it would have been in about 1715 or 1720, if William the merchant was living in London in 1690 with small children ... right?? I have tried to tie THIS William and Thomas to the "Thomas Andrews" original Virginia settler, from whom all the Southern Andrews say they are descended, but I can't find that connection. Am I missing something? According to James David Andrews' letter, this appears to be a different family ... but then, I just don't know! I have a lot of research to do on this family. Thank you!

The 11 pages stapled together which appear to have copies of articles on them, with photos that are so washed out you can't make them out anymore. I believe all or most of the material comes from a book titled: "The Heritage of Montgomery Co., N.C., 1981" IBSN 0-89459-153-3. The articles on these pages are as follows (spellings left intact):

1. Mrs. Ellen Andrews [about the life of "Granny Andrews" married to Eli Franklin Andrews in 1865]
2. "The Andrews Family" [about the roots of the pioneer family who settled Montgomery Co., N.C. in the 18th century -- and also about the family of John Andrews from Brunswick Co., Virginia -- whose father-in-law was John Scarborough, Sr.]
3. an obituary for George Washington Andrews dated 1934
4. "Mrs. Ida Lee Andrews" [wife of Dr. Vernon L. Andrews, Sr. -- of Mt. Gilead]
5. "Dr. Vernon Liles Andrews, Sr." [an article about him written by Evelyn Andrews Hughes]
6. "The Descendants of Dr. Vernon Liles Andrews, Sr." again by Evelyn Andrews Hughes]
7. "The Robert Edgar Andrews Family" -- eldest of 10 children of George Washington and Martha Scarborough Andrews [an article by Marc Andrews]
8. "Thomas B. and Lena Harris Andrews" -- son of George W. and Martha Scarboro Andrews [an article by Lena H. Andrews]
9. "The Scarborough Family" -- descended from James Allen Scarborough, King of Wales in the mid-1700's [article by Iris Scarborough and Leah S. Barton]
10. "The Scarborough Family" [article by Margaret Scarborough Dickinson]
11. "The Scarborough Family Genealogy" and "Oscar Robert Scarborough Family."

Oh, and I too would LOVE to know more about Launcelot Andrews, Bishop of London!

Ruth Vreeland
__________________
LANCELOT ANDREWS

He was born at London, in 1565. He was trained chiefly at Merchant Taylor's school, in his native city, till he was appointed to one of the first Greek Scholarships of Pembroke Hall, in the University of Cambridge. Once a year, at Easter, he used to pass a month with his parents. During this vacation, he would find a master, from whom he learned some language to which he was before a stranger. In this way after a few years, he acquired most of the modern languages of Europe. At the University, he gave himself chiefly to the Oriental tongues and to divinity. When he became candidate for a fellowship, there was but one vacancy; and he had a powerful competitor in Dr. Dove, who was afterwards Bishop of Peterborough. After long and severe examination, the matter was decided in favor of Andrews. But Dove, though vanquished, proved himself in this trial so fine a scholar, that the College, unwilling to lose him, appointed him as a sort of supernumerary Fellow. Andrews also received a complimentary appointment as Fellow of Jesus College, in the University of Oxford. In his own College, he was made a catechist; that is to say, a lecturer in divinity.

His conspicuous talents soon gained him powerful patrons. Henry, Earl of Huntingdon, took him into the North of England; where he was the means of converting many papists by his preaching and disputations. He was also warmly befriended by Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary of State to Queen Elizabeth. He was made parson of Alton, in Hampshire; and then Vicar of St. Giles, in London. He was afterwards made Prebendary and Canon Residentiary of St. Paul's, and also of the Collegiate Church of Southwark. He lectured on divinity at St. Paul's three times each week. On the death of Dr. Fulke, in 1589, Dr. Andrews, though so young, was chosen Master of Pembroke Hall, where he had received his education. While at the head of this College, he was one of its principal benefactors. It was rather poor at that time, but by his efforts its endowments were much increased; and at his death, many years later, he bequeathed to it, besides some plate, three hundred folio volumes, and a thousand pounds to found two fellowships.

He gave up his Mastership to become chaplain in Queen Elizabeth, who delighted in his preaching, and made him Prebendary of Westminster, afterwards Dean of that famous church. In the matter of Church dignities and preferments, he was highly favored. It was while he held the office of Dean of Westminster, that Dr. Andrews was made director, or president, of the first company of Translators, composed of ten members, who held their meetings at Westminster. The portion assigned to them was the five books of Moses, and the historical books to the end of the Second Book of Kings. Perhaps no part of the work is better executed than this.

With King James, Dr. Andrews stood in still higher favor than he had done with Elizabeth. "The Canterbury is the higher rack, but Winchester is the better manger." At the time of this last preferment Dr. Andrews was appointed Dean of the King's chapel; and these stations he retained till his death.

In the high offices Bishop Andrews filled, he conducted himself with great ability and integrity. The crack-brained king, who scarce knew how to restrain his profanity and levity under the most serious circumstances, was overawed by the gravity of this prelate, and desisted from mirth and frivolity in his presence. And yet the good bishop knew how to be facetious on occasion. Edmund Wailer, the poet, tells of being once at court, and overhearing a conversation held by the king with Bishop Andrews, and Bishop Neile, of Durham. The monarch, who was always a jealous stickler for his prerogatives, and something more, was in those days trying to raise a revenue without parliamentary authority. In these measures, so clearly unconstitutional, he was opposed by Bishop Andrews with dignity and decision. Wailer says, the king asked this brace of bishops," My lords, cannot I take my subject's money when I want it, without all this formality in parliament?" The Bishop of Durham, one of the meanest of sycophants to his prince, and a harsh and haughty oppressor of his puritan clergy, made ready answer," God forbid, Sir, but you should; you are the breath of our nostrils!" Upon this the king looked at the Bishop of Winchester; "Well my lord, what say you?" Dr. Andrews replied evasively, "Sir, I have no skill to judge of parliamentary matters." But the king persisted, "No put offs, my lord, answer me presently? "Then, Sir," said the shrewd Bishop, "I think it lawful for you to take my brother Neile's money, for he offers it." Even the petulant king was hugely pleased with this piece of pleasantry, which gave great amusement to his cringing courtiers.

"For the benefit of the afflicted," as the advertisements have it, we give a little incident which may afford a useful hint to some that need it. While Dr. Andrews was one of the divines at Cambridge, he was applied to by a worthy alderman of that drowsy city, who was beset by the sorry habit of sleeping under the afternoon sermon; and who, to his great mortification, had been publicly rebuked by the minister of the parish. As snuff had not then came into vogue, Dr. Andrews did not advise, as some matter-of-fact persons have done in such cases to titillate the "sneezer" with a rousing pinch. He seems to have been of the opinion of the famous Dr. Romaine, who once told his full-fed congregation in London, that it was hard work to preach to two pounds of beef and a pot of porter. So Dr. Andrews advised his civic friend to help his wakefulness by dining very sparingly. The advice was followed; but without avail. Again the rotund dignitary slumbered and slept in his pew; and again was he roused by the harsh rebukes of the irritated preacher. With tears in those too sleepy eyes of his, the mortified alderman repaired to Dr. Andrews, begging for further counsel. The considerate divine, pitying his infirmity, recommended to him to dine as usual, and then to take his nap before repairing to his pew. This plan was adopted; and to the next discourse, which was a violent invective prepared for the very purpose of castigating the alderman's somnolent habit, he listened with unwinking eyes, and his uncommon vigilance gave quite a ridiculous air to the whole business. The unhappy parson was nearly as much vexed at his huge-waisted parishioner's unwonted wakeful-ness, as before at his unseemly dozing.

Bishop Andrews continued in high esteem with Charles I; and that most culpable of monarchs, whose only redeeming quality was the strength and tenderness of his domestic affections, in his dying advice to his children, advised them to study the writings of three divines, of whom our Translator was one.

Lancelot Andrews died at Winchester House, in Southwark, London, September 25th, 1626, aged sixty-one years. He was buried in the Church of St. Saviour, where a fair monument marks the spot. Having never married, he bequeathed his property to benevolent uses. John Milton, then but a youth, wrote a glowing Latin elegy on his death.

As a preacher, Bishop Andrews was right famous in his day. He was called the "star of preachers." Thomas Fuller says that he was "an inimitable preacher in his way; and such plagiarists as have stolen his sermons could never steal his preaching, and could make nothing of that, whereof he made all things as he desired." Pious and pleasant Bishop Fei-ton, his contemporary and colleague, endeavored in vain in his sermons to assimilate to his style, and therefore said merrily of himself, "I had almost marred my own natural trot by endeavoring to imitate his artificial amble." Let this be a warning to all who would fain play the monkey, and especially to such as would ape the eccentricities of genius. Nor is it desirable that Bishop Andrews' style should be imitated even successfully; for it abounds in quips, quirks, and puns, according to the false taste of his time. Few writers are" so happy as to treat on matters which must always interest, and to do it in a manner which shall for ever please." To build up a solid literary reputation, taste and judgment in composition are as necessary as learning and strength of thought. The once admired folios of Bishop Andrews have long been doomed to the dusty dignity of the lower shelf in the library.

Many hours he spent each day in private and family devotions; and there were some who used to desire that "they might end their days in Bishop Andrews's chapel." He was one in whom was proved the truth of Luther's saying, that "to have prayed well, is to have studied well." His manual for his private devotions, prepared by himself, is wholly in the Greek language. It has been translated and printed. This praying prelate also abounded in alms-giving; usually sending his benefactions in private, as from a friend who chose to remain unknown. He was exceedingly liberal in his gifts to poor and deserving scholars. His own instructors he held in the highest reverence. His old schoolmaster Mulcaster always sat at the upper end of the Episcopal table; and when the venerable pedagogue was dead, his portrait was placed over the bishop's study door. These were just tokens of respect "For if the scholar to such height did reach, Then what was he who did that scholar teach?"

This worthy diocesan was much "given to hospitality," and especially to literary strangers. So bountiful was his cheer, that it used to be said, "My lord of Winchester keeps Christmas all the year round." He once spent three thousand pounds in three days, though "in this we praise him not," in entertaining King James at Farnham Castle. His society was as much sought, however, for the charm of his rich and instructive conversation, as for his liberal housekeeping and his exalted stations.

But we are chiefly concerned to know what were his qualifications as a Translator of the Bible. He ever bore the character of "a right godly man," and "a prodigious student." One competent judge speaks of him as "that great gulf of learning!" It was also said, that "the world wanted learning to know how learned this man was." And a brave old chronicler remarks, that, such was his skill in all languages, especially the Oriental, that, had he been present at the confusion of tongues at Babel, he might have served as Interpreter-General! In his funeral sermon by Dr. Buckeridge, Bishop of Rochester, it is said that Dr. Andrews was conversant with fifteen languages.
____________
Chronology
1857 Sept. - James D. Andrews born in Tennessee
1883 circa - James D. Andrews marries Lula Adaline Maxwell
1883-1901 - James D. Andrews works as business manager at the Nashville Banner newspaper
1884 Feb. 3 - Son Frank Maxwell Andrews born
1887 Dec. - Son James D. Andrews, Jr. born
1888 Aug. - Son William Valery Andrews born
1892 July - Daughter Josephine Andrews born
1900 - James D. Andrews listed as real estate agent. Unknown when he began in this occupation; he continues this work until his death
1918 - All three sons serve overseas during World War I
1921 circa - Blackwood Field opened near the Hermitage as a base for the 105th Observation Squadron. Its creation made possible in part by contributions of Nashville businessmen, especially members of the Commercial Club, including a generous donation of $1,000 from H.O. Blackwood, for which it is named.

1924 July 29 - First airmail flight from Nashville departs Blackwood Field.
1927 - Construction begins on McConnell Field, first municipal airport in city. Named for Lt. Brower McConnell, a Tennessee National Guard pilot killed in a crash in 1927.
1927 Nov. 29 - 105th Observation Squadron begins move from Blackwood Field to McConnell Field
1928 - Blackwood Field closed
1928 Dec. 1 - Air mail via Contract Air Mail (C.A.M.) Route 30, running from Atlanta to Chicago through Nashville's McConnell Field, begins.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 2
1929 June 5 - Construction begins on Sky Harbor airport, near Murfreesboro
1929 Sept. - Mayor Hilary Howse forms committee to assist in location and development of a class A-1 airport for Nashville. Committee members: E. A. Lindsay, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce aeronautics committee; James E. Caldwell; James A. Cayce, president of the Chamber of Commerce; James I. Finney; James G.Stahlman; Albert E. Hill.

1929 Oct. 14 - Dedication of Sky Harbor. It will become Nashville's main airport, despite the fact that it is located near Murfreesboro.

1930 Nov. 25 - 105th Observation Squadron moved to Armstrong Field in Memphis

1931 Jan. 30 - Granville Rucker and Ed Houston die in plane crash in Richland neighborhood, near McConnell Field

1931 Apr. 17 - 105th Observation Squadron moved from Memphis to Sky Harbor near Murfreesboro

1932 Feb. 24 - Bomber badly wrecked at McConnell; pilot did not think Nashville's airport would be in another county (Sky Harbor)

1932 Apr. 19 - Lula Maxwell Andrews dies.
1934 - Eastern Airlines begins operating out of Sky Harbor
1934 Dec. 19 - Strong winds damage planes, blow down tents used as hangars at McConnell Field
1935 - Members of city airport committee include: Will T. Cheek, chair; R.B. Beal, secretary; Ed Potter, John Sloan, Col. Herbert Fox, all representing Chamber of Commerce; Gen. J.H. Ballew, representing the State; James G. Stahlman, Nashville Banner; Lt J.Pardue, The Tennessean; T.B. Faucett, Nashville Labor Advocate; Dr. J.W. Bauman, Luther Luton, Mayor Howse, all representing the City; Dr. W.D. Haggard and W.O. Rhodes (affiliation unidentified)

1935 Nov. 5 - Nashville City Council passes $100,000 bond issue to construct new airport

1936 June 24 - An American Airlines DC-2 is first airplane to land at new Nashville airport, still under construction off of Murfreesboro Rd.

1936 Nov. 1 - Dedication ceremonies for Nashville Municipal Airport
1937 - State of Tennessee establishes Bureau of Aeronautics within the Department of Highways
1937 - McConnell Field closes
1937 - Commercial air traffic now routed through Nashville Municipal Airport instead of Sky Harbor
1937 Mar. 4 - James D. Andrews dies.
1937 June 12-13 - Official opening day celebration of Nashville Municipal Airport; the DC-3 American Airlines "Flagship Tennessee" is christened; many notable aviators attend

1938 Jan. 1 - 105th Observation Squadron moves from Sky Harbor to Nashville Municipal Airport (Berry Field)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 3

Biographical/Historical Sketch
James D. Andrews was born in September 1857 in Tennessee. He married Lula Adaline Maxwell around 1883. Together they had a daughter, Josephine (the future Mrs. Gillespie Sykes); and three sons, all of whom served in the military: Frank Maxwell Andrews; James D. Andrews, Jr.; and William Valery Andrews. James D. Andrews, Sr. was business manager of the Nashville Banner newspaper from 1883 to 1901 and was a real estate agent in Nashville, Tenn. in the early 1900s. He was a vocal advocate for aviation in the city, so much so that some citizens even proposed that the new Nashville airport, opened in 1936, be named in his honor. He represented at least four property owners (William O. Harris; Rychen Brothers dairy; Flora Hammer Bean; and A. A. Buckingham) in the sale of land to the City for the future airport. James D. Andrews died on March 4,1937 at his home in Warner Place, in Belle Meade, Tenn., and was buried at Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville, Tenn.

Scope and Contents of the Collection
Manuscripts, primarily consisting of original and copy letters, and news clippings relating to activities of Nashville real estate agent James D. Andrews and the subject of aviation in Nashville during the 1920s and 1930s, especially the creation of Nashville Municipal Airport in 1936. Manuscripts provide strong documentation of Andrews' personal involvement and activities, while news clippings provide a broader view of aviation in Nashville.

Manuscripts cover the time period of 1912-1943 and consist primarily of original and carbon copies of letters written to or by James D. Andrews, and also include sketch maps of property under consideration as potential sites for the new airport, layouts and diagrams of actual or hypothetical airports, and occasional brochures or other documents relating to aviation in Nashville, Tennessee, and the greater Southeast. Four local airfields figure prominently in these materials: Blackwell Field (Hermitage, Tenn.), McConnell Field (Nashville, Tenn.), Sky Harbor (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) and Nashville Municipal Airport, also known as Berry Field.

Subjects include: air mail routes and services; military aviation, especially the 105th Observation Squadron, based in Nashville and moved to both Memphis and Sky Harbor; inadequacies and safety risks of older fields if they continue to be used; specifications necessary for a new field; growth of the aviation industry in general, throughout the Southeast, and in Nashville; increasing demand for passenger service; aviation as a component of industrial growth and commercial development; support from the business community and Chamber of Commerce for a new airport; civic pride and boosterism about Nashville and the desire for a new airport, presenting Nashville as a "modern" city and in competition with other Southern cities, especially Memphis and Atlanta; and weather problems associated with Nashville which make flying difficult, including frequent fogs and soot from the city. Not surprisingly, due to Andrews's work as a real
--------------------------------------
Page 4
estate agent, much of the collection concerns land and property owners in areas under consideration for the new airfield, with a number of sketch maps, descriptions of property, property values, correspondence to and from land owners, and related matters. A number of different areas were considered as a possible location for the field, including property belonging to the Thompson family along Franklin Road, reopening of Blackwood Field, land in the Bordeaux area, and finally, the Harris farm site and adjoining lands on Murfreesboro Road (the Dixie Highway) – the latter being the site that eventually was chosen. As movement was being made on constructing a new airport in the mid-1930s, additional materials document the involvement of state, city, and national governments in the building of the new airport, especially numerous New Deal agencies of the Federal government, including the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civil Works Administration (CWA), as well as other agencies, such as the Department of Commerce, which regulated airports. Other topics include construction methods, materials, and costs; funding sources; debate about the selection of a site for the new airport, and even skepticism that a new airport was needed at all. Other government-related topics include actions taken by the City and mayor in support of or opposition to anew airport; the suggestion to use the Park Commissioners as a model for development of an Airport Commission for the City; and activities of the Airport Commission. Other topics include visiting dignitaries, such as notable aviators and military and commercial aviation officials; and the proposed reuse of McConnell Field.

Some letters debate and provide commentary about the affect of airplanes upon the residents of mental asylums when asylums are in close proximity to an airport, of special concern since Central State Psychiatric Hospital was located near the Harris farm site, the eventual location of the new airport. Manuscripts also include some comments from James D. Andrews's son, Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews of the U.S. Army Air Forces, who wrote in support of his father's claims and provided specifications, referrals, guidance and suggestions to his father in his advocacy efforts.

Specific incidents which are documented include: the death of Ed Houston and Granville Rucker in a plane crash in the Richland neighborhood of Nashville, near McConnell Field on Jan. 30, 1931; the proposed amendment of the City Charter in 1931 to create an Airport Commission; and the dedication (Nov. 1, 1936) and opening day (June 12-13,1937) ceremonies at Nashville Municipal Airport, also known as Berry Field, named in honor of Col. Harry S. Berry, State WPA Administrator. An early (circa 1915) brochure written by the future father-in-law of Frank M. Andrews, Lt. Col. Henry T. Allen, entitled "The Dixie Highway as a Military Asset" (Folder 1); a program from the opening of the Birmingham, Ala. airport in 1931 (Folder 75); and an article by Herbert Fox entitled, "Tennessee's Aviation Future" providing an overview of various airfields in the state (Folder 36), are also included in the manuscripts subseries. Additional topics which are incidental to the above and which appear to have no bearing on Andrews's airport advocacy include a few papers related to his work as a real estate agent and his religious beliefs. His occasional habit of using stray bits of paper as notepaper results in the documentation of several small businesses and other minutiae relating to Nashville in the 1920s and 1930s.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 5
News clippings, covering the approximate time period of 1927-1937, essentially document most of the same subjects as the manuscripts, described above, although there is the notable contrast of the manuscripts documenting Andrews's personal involvement in aviation issues, while the clippings enable a broader view of the same subject, especially the community's response to the issue. Clippings also include photographs printed in the newspaper, editorials, letters to the editor, and editorial cartoons, providing visual information as well as a diversity of opinion. The majority of the clippings are undated.

Subjects contained in the clippings, in addition to those described above in the manuscripts subseries, include: the opening of Sky Harbor, attended by many well-known aviators; various government actions related to aviation and construction of a new airport, some favorable, some opposed; the 105th Observation Squadron; technical matters related to a new airfield, including proximity of electrical power, roadways, post office, and other details; opposition of the Ladies' Hermitage Association to the reopening of Blackwood Field; visits of Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews to Nashville and vicinity; commercial airlines' involvement and advocacy for new airport; the National Air Tour's stop at Sky Harbor; Federal involvement in aviation and creation of a new airfield; technical matters relating to aviation such as night flying, radio navigation, and the increasing size, speed, and power of airplanes; James D. Andrews's letters to the editor and other actions he took in his support for aviation in Nashville; and extensive coverage, including photographs printed in the paper, about the dedication of Nashville Municipal Airport on Nov. 1 and 2, 1936.

Clippings also include a short series of articles entitled, "Learning to Fly in Nashville," a column written in 1929 by a Tennessean newspaper reporter who learns to fly; photographs and biographical information about the three sons of James D. Andrews and their military careers; the first airmail flight from Nashville to Old Hickory; and an "Air Circus" held at McConnell Field, featuring the "boy parachutist" Hugh Thomasson.

Individuals featured prominently in both the manuscripts and clippings subseries as authors, recipients, or subjects include: James D. Andrews; his son, Gen. Frank Maxwell Andrews; Nashville Mayor Hilary Howse; James A. Cayce; Capt. Herbert Fox; James G. Stahlman; Will T. Cheek who served on the Airport Commission; Gov. Hill McAlister; Capt. Charles G. Pearcy; and Granville Rucker and Ed Houston, both of whom died in a plane crash near McConnell Field in 1931. Other persons include editorial cartoonists; various government officials and a number of representatives from commercial airlines, especially Interstate Airlines and American Airways. Many other individuals appear in the collection, but are not featured as prominently as those mentioned above.

A wide variety of other subjects and persons are represented in the James D. Andrews Series of the collection. Researchers are advised to consult the two extensively detailed sections of this finding aid: the Contents Index and the Detailed Folder Listing, for more information.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 6

Organization/Arrangement of Materials
The collection is organized into the following series:

I. James D. Andrews Series
II. Frank Maxwell Andrews Series
III. Miscellaneous Nashville subjects

Series I is divided further into the following subseries by format:
A. Manuscripts, 1912-1943 (arranged chronologically)
B. News clippings, 1927-1937 (no arrangement scheme)

Personal Names:
Andrews, Frank Maxwell, 1884-1943 -- Correspondence
Andrews, James David, 1857-1937 -- Correspondence
Andrews, James David, b. 1887
Andrews, William Valery, b.1888
Cheek, Will T., 1886-1958
Fox, Herbert F. (Herbert Franklin), 1896-1952
Houston, Ed (Edward C.), d. 1931
Howse, Hilary E. (Hilary Ewing), 1866-1938
McAlister, Hill, 1875-1959
Rucker, Granville, d.1931

Added Authors: Allen, Henry T. (Henry Tureman), 1859-1930

Associated and Related Material
A ten-page letter from James D. Andrews to Hartwell Brown Grubbs, dated Feb. 26,1932 is held by the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tenn.

Most materials created or collected by James D. Andrews, although a few items are dated after his death.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 9

In addition, their holdings also include two manuscript collections relating to the Andrews family: the Frank Maxwell Andrews Papers and the William Valery Andrews Papers.

Detailed Description of the Collection

Series I. James D. Andrews Series, 1912-1943, 1 cu. ft.

Sub-series A. James D. Andrews Manuscripts, 1912-1943, .5 cu. ft.
Series Abstract/Description: Correspondence and other manuscript materials documenting James D. Andrews's efforts as an advocate for aviation in Nashville, Tenn. and in particular, his efforts to get a new modern airport built for the city.

Arrangement: Rough chronological order – many items undated or of uncertain date
Container List: Folders 1-52, 75

Sub-series B. James D. Andrews Clippings, 1927-1937, .46 cu. ft.
Series Abstract/Description: Newspaper clippings, mostly from the Nashville Banner, Tennesseean, and Nashville American newspapers concerning aviation in Nashville, including air mail, military aviation and the 105th Observation Squadron, and the effort to build a new airport in Nashville, which would become Nashville Municipal Airport, also known as Berry Field. Contains numerous clippings about two of Nashville's airfields: McConnell Field and Blackwood Field, as well as Sky Harbor near Murfreesboro.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 38

VI. Photographs
All photographs appear in newspaper clippings, unless otherwise noted

Folder Description

53 Frank Maxwell Andrews with granddaughter, Allen Reavis Williams, on their shared birthday

James Andrews Sr.; James Andrews Jr.; and Frank Maxwell Andrews

aerial photograph of Harris farm site, prior to construction of airport

54 aerial photograph of crowd attending opening ceremonies at Municipal Airport

Frank Maxwell Andrews in full flight gear, shaking hands with his father, James D. Andrews Sr., and Ellen Sikes [Sykes]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 39

81 James D. Andrews and sons

85 Maj. Frank Maxwell Andrews, Capt. James D. Andrews, 1st Lt. William Valery Andrews and other officers from Nashville who are in the Army, 1921
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Page 40

Handwritten annotation indicates Lt. Andrews was a pilot.
Medals of Capt. James D. Andrews, Jr., 1926

Nashville aviators including Johnny MacKenzie in his last photobefore his death from setting off fireworks

VII. Editorial cartoons
Folder Description

----------------------------------------------------------------
Page 41

VIII. Miscellaneous items on unrelated subjects

James D. Andrews often used whatever paper was at hand to write notes or drafts, and frequently wrote on the backs of advertisements, letters, and other documents. Many of the items described below are incidental to the contents of the James D. Andrews Series, but nevertheless may be of interest to the local history researcher.

Folder Description

1 brochure: "Dixie Hwy. as Military Asset"
3 letter from unidentified church regarding fundraising, Synod of Tennessee will meet in Nashville in Oct. Signed by ___ Hearn,1926
8 form letter from Joe P. McCord, Davidson County tax assessor,1924
10 Caldwell & Co. information sheet for municipal bonds for CarterCo., 5% school bonds, 1928
12 advertisement for opening day of Hermitage Laundry on West End Ave., Feb. 19, 1927
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 42

90 Advertisement from Florsheim Shoe Shop, made to resemble newspaper, seeking J.D. Andrews as "missing customer" c. 1935

Detailed Folder Listing
Abbreviations: FMA = Frank Maxwell Andrews
JDA = James D. Andrews

Subseries A – Manuscripts
Folder Summary of contents

1 weather & threshing in Ariz.; brochure: "Dixie Hwy. as Military Asset" by Lt. Col. Henry T. Allen; handwritten list of medals and awards for James D. Andrews, Jr.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 43

8 notes of values and acreage of lands; description of Smith tract and value; comments from Maj. (F.M.) Andrews; air mail;

1929: smoke and fog problems; Sweeney farm; McConnell Field; State Senate Bill 327 granting Nashville the right of eminent domain to condemn and acquire land for airport; bonds; specifications for a safe field; summary of visits and reports by Federal and state officials; advocacy letters to newspapers by JDA; plan for growth of airport and size of planes; *see also Box 3 Folder 75. 1927: Costs of purchasing Kennon and McEwen land; JDA discourages site of Sloan land due to elevations and underlying rock; comparison of dirt and fill and expenses of Sloan and Berry lands, description of lands

13 Harris farm assets; dangers of McConnell Field; weather conditions, water and electric provisions at Harris site; letter from JDA to unidentified person, inquiring about specifics of an airfield being used by the correspondent

14 note about timber value on Harris farm and cost of removal; JDA inquires of Howse if Howse is open to suggestions; note by JDA on letter from Phillips stating that Phillips' report does not recommend McConnell Field
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 44

15 JDA reports on meeting with Dr. Core, superintendent of Davidson County Insane Asylum, Core reported inmates of asylum not disturbed by planes landing nearby in open field or flying over; FMA provides general social news and recommends Harris farm site, states Bolling Field and Naval Air Station are near an asylum; Bogle states the Committee did not investigate or inquire about Insane Asylum, Bogle believes an air field would have no adverse affect on the patients; Cooper says Sky Harbor in competition w/airport for Nashville; JDA reports 105th Observation Squadron has been flying over and landing near Asylum for several years with no adverse affect, similar situation in Washington DC - Bolling Field, Naval Air Station, St. Elizabeth's Hospital; opposition by Sky Harbor and Harris farm neighbors to Harris site; JDA proposes conference with Mayor for those who object; consider purchase property through Park Commissioners, then lease to Airport; compliments to Caldwell for his letter to Adj. Gen. Boyd; airplanes no affect on asylum inmates; ill affects of airplanes flying over State Insane Asylum in Texas, JDA's brother briefly was there;

25 Lance provides JDA with photographic negative of Col. Andrews & family at Sky Harbor visit; Riddle has been assessing airport locations in Nashville, not impressed, does not approve of Harris site, willing to meet w/JDA; Sky Harbor is a two hour round trip from Nashville, too far for convenience, summary of actions taken thus far to locate suitable site, land and prices vicinity Harris farm, fate of McConnell Field if abandoned, oil company may invest in a new field; disappointing results in bond issue vote, poor voter turnout, $1 million airport must not be wanted, but perhaps Nashville can get a suitable airport for half that amount

26 105th Observation Squadron will need to seek leased sites at Sky Harbor or Memphis, conditions of lease, minimum specs, dissatisfaction with current situation; Squadron. moves to Memphis & related fallout; JDA was schoolmate of Horton, advocates for Squadron to remain in Nashville; implication that moving squadron to Memphis is payback of election promise by Horton; advocate for squadron to remain at Sky Harbor; view of Militia Bureau from FMA; pilots prohibited from landing at McConnell Field, must use Sky Harbor; need adequate provision for squadron in order for it to remain in state with its equipment. Memphis not adequate, Sky Harbor could be, Atlanta may try to get squadron, planes cannot lawfully be used at this time; political contest between Sen. Charles Vaughn & Austin, and desire of/opposition to W.K. Abernathy for speaker of Tenn. Legislature, and political influence generally; squadron to Memphis, Federal authorities would not certify McConnell Field; FMA says Memphis field likely to lose the squadron, may be transferred to Maxwell Field in Ala., Sky Harbor could work, may be change in Tenn. governor, if so, best to have plans ready for use of Sky Harbor, FMA asks not to have his name used in this cause; hangars at McConnell orig. came from Ark. and Memphis then to Blackwood
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 46
then to McConnell by C.G. Pearcy, includes cost; 30th Div. Aviation, Militia Bureau; Memphis fails to meet requirements for squadron; JDA urges Horton to bring squadron to Sky Harbor; Fitzhugh could become governor, if so, he is from Memphis and would not be inclined to remove squadron from Memphis, Memphis not meeting requirements, may be flying w/o authority, Sky Harbor already meets requirements

28 Advocacy of Airport Commission bill in state legislature as proposed amendment to Nashville City charter, modeled after Park Commission providing for eminent domain acquisition of land; reference to 1929 act (S.B. 327, Chap. 204, Private Acts) concerning acquisition of land by Nashville for airport; concern about legality of any such act that it could withstand a court challenge; air mail; encourage Howse to convert Airport Committee into an Airport Commission; Andrews' frustration with slow response from Howse about Andrews' proposals

34. Summary of Senate Bill 1140, Chap. 17 (1931) enabling cities to establish airports, incl. condemning land if necessary; FMA's support for a new airport; notes concerning land near Bogle Rd. and Stones River Rd.

35 Note about transition from McConnell Field to Harris farm site incl. income from leases; typed summary of meeting between JDA, Mayor Howse, Mr. Centner of Aeronautics of U.S. Dept. of Commerce, and others about McConnell Field and
______________________________________________________

James D. Andrews Papers:
Series II. Frank Maxwell Andrews Series, 1908-c.1950 (bulk 1929-1943)

Collection Summary
Creator: James David Andrews, collector
Title: Frank Maxwell Andrews Series
Inclusive Dates: 1908-c.1950 (bulk 1929-1943)
Summary/Abstract: Manuscripts, including some correspondence, periodicals, newspaper clippings, and related materials about the military career of Army Air Corps general and Nashville, Tenn. native, Frank Maxwell Andrews.
Physical Description/Extent: .6 cu. ft.
Series: Frank Maxwell Andrews Series
Linking Entry Complexity Note: Forms part of the James D. Andrews Papers. Accession Number: Acc. RT-100
Language: In English.
Stack Location: Closed stacks SCC workroom range 1 section 3
Repository: Special Collections Division, Nashville Public Library, 615 Church St., Nashville, TN 37219

CHRONOLOGY
1884 Feb. 3 Frank Maxwell Andrews born to James D. and Lula Adaline Maxwell Andrews in Nashville, Tenn.

1887 Dec. - Brother James D. Andrews, Jr. born.
1888 Aug. - Brother William Valery Andrews born.
1892 July - Sister Josephine Andrews born.
1901 - Graduates from Montgomery Bell Academy.
1902 - Enters U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.
1906 - June- Graduates from U.S. Military Academy with rank of second lieutenant. 1906 1906 - Served with 8th Cavalry Regiment in Philippines.
1907 Apr. - Began service with unidentified cavalry unit at Ft. Yellowstone Wyo. Served at Ft. Huachuca, Ariz.
1910 Oct./Nov. - Stationed at Ft. Meyer, Va.
1911 Jan. - Began serving for 3 years as aide to Brig. Gen. Macomb at Schofield Barracks, Honolulu, Hawaii.
1912 Nov. 12 - Promoted to first lieutenant.
1913 July - Returned to mainland U.S. serving with 2nd Cavalry at Ft. Bliss, Tex.
1913 Dec. - Stationed at Ft. Ethan Allen, Vt., meets Jeanette Allen, daughter of Gen. Henry T. Allen.
1914 Mar. 18 - Marries Jeanette Allen.
1916 July 15 - Promoted to captain.
1917 Apr. 6 - The United States enters World War I.
1917 Aug. 5 - Transferred to Signal Corps for duty with Aviation Division.
1918 July - Earned wings as Junior Military Aviator at age 34, considered old.
1918 Oct. - Supervisor of Southeastern Air Service District headquartered in Montgomery, Ala.

Page 2

Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 2 of 16
James D. Andrews Papers

1918 Nov. 11 World War I ends.
1920 Aug. 14 Sent to Germany as part of Occupation forces
1923 June - 1927 Sept. Stationed at Kelly Field, Tex.
1929 Aug. Held rank of major and was executive officer in the office of Chief of Air Service, Washington, DC.
1930 Jan. 13 Promoted to lieutenant colonel.
1931 May Held rank of Lt. Col., chief of staff, operations and training divisions, U.S.Army Air Corps, Washington DC.
1932 Apr. Held rank of Col.
1932 Apr. 19 Lula Maxwell Andrews dies.
1935 Mar. 1 Became first Commanding General of GHQ Air Force with temporary rank of Brig. Gen.
1935 Spring Andrews makes statement to a 'secret session" of the House of Representatives that U.S. must be prepared, if necessary, to take over bases in other countries if they were in danger of being taken over by forces of enemies of the U.S. His statement is leaked to the press, causing a public outcry and denied as Army policy by Army officials, ultimately resulting in Andrews' censure by President Roosevelt.

1935 Aug. 24 Sets three world's records in a seaplane for speed without payload, speedwith payload of 500 kg, and speed with payload of 1000 kg, breaking all three records previously held by Charles Lindbergh.

1935 Dec. 26 Temporarily promoted to major general.
1936 Feb. 22 Serving as commanding general of General Headquarters Staff, American Air Force, Frank M. Andrews stops at Sky Harbor airport near Murfreesboro, Tenn. in his "office plane" and meets with his father.

1936 June 14 Nashville hosts celebration for Frank M. Andrews, including a reception, barbecue, and "sham battle" held on the estate of Col. Henry Dickinson.

1936 Nov. 1 Attends dedication ceremonies for new Nashville Municipal Airport (Berry Field).

1937 Mar. 4 James D. Andrews dies.
1937-1938 Participates in "war games" using air power against naval forces.

1939 Mar. Tour of duty as Commanding Gen. of GHQ completed and returned to permanent rank of colonel, sent to Ft. Sam Houston, Tex.

1939 July 1 Promoted to brigadier general by Gen. George C. Marshall and served on War Dept. General Staff in Washington, under Marshall.

1940 Nov. In command of Panama Canal Air Force.

1941 Sept. Became first air commander to head a joint forces organization when hebecame commander of Caribbean Defense Command and Panama Canal Department. The command system he established there was used as a model and advocated by Chief of the Army Air Forces, Gen. H.H. "Hap"Arnold.

1941 Dec. 7 The United States enters World War II after the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii.

1942 Nov. Andrews becomes commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East.

1943 (early) Andrews becomes commander of U.S. forces in Europe, headquartered in London.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 3
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 3 of 16

James D. Andrews Papers
1943 May 3 Dies in plane crash in Iceland; buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va.

1943 June 14 Dedication of Andrews Blvd. in Nashville, named in his honor.
1944 Feb. Dedication of airfield in Dominican Republic, named in his honor.
1945 Camp Springs airbase in Maryland renamed Andrews Field in his honor.
1947 Andrews Field name changed to Andrews Air Force Base.

Biographical/Historical Sketch:

Frank Maxwell Andrews was born on Feb. 3, 1884, the first child of James D. and Lula Maxwell Andrews of Nashville, Tenn. All three of James D. Andrews's sons, Frank (or "Maxwell" as he was called in the family), James D. Andrews, Jr. (probably known as "David") and William Valery Andrews would go on to have military careers. He had one sister, Josephine, who later married Nashvillian Gillespie Sykes. Frank Maxwell Andrews attended public schools until the age of 13, when he entered Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, graduating in 1901. The following year, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he graduated in 1906 with the rank of second lieutenant. He was sent to serve with the 8th Cavalry Regiment in the Philippines. He returned to the United States about a year later, serving briefly in Wyoming, Arizona, and Virginia. In 1911, he became an aide to Brigadier General Macomb at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, and returned to the United States mainland in the summer of 1913. He married Jeanette Allen on Mar. 18, 1914. Both Frank and Jeanette, who went by the nick name, "Johnnie," were avid polo players. She was the daughter of General Henry T. Allen. Allen, sensing Andrews's growing interest in aviation, declared no aviator would ever marry his daughter. Andrews remained in the cavalry for a time, but after several years of married life, in 1917, he joined the Signal Corps serving in the Aviation Division. Although considered old for an aviator, he nevertheless rapidly advanced in rank and responsibility. In 1918, he became supervisor of the Southeastern Air Service District. After World War I, he served in Germany as part of the Occupation, and commanded air forces under his father-in-law, Maj. Gen. Henry T. Allen. He returned to the United States sometime in the early 1920s, and he continued to advance in his career. On Mar. 1, 1935, he became the first Commanding General of GHQ Air Force, with the temporary rank of Brigadier General. His work in this capacity established the modern Air Force. Key innovations were the consolidation of all Army Air Forces under one overall command, the development of regional air commands, and improved training and strategic planning, especially in the strategic and tactical uses of bombers. In 1935, he set three new world records for speed in a seaplane, breaking the records held by Charles Lindbergh. Also in 1935, he caused an uproar when he stated before a House of Representatives secret session that it might be necessary for American forces to seize airbases of other countries if they were in danger of becoming a threat to the United States. The statement was leaked to the press, the Army denied such a policy, and President Roosevelt censured him. This difficulty did not, however, ultimately affect his career. He returned to Nashville numerous times, and was honored in June 1936 by Col. Henry Dickinson, who hosted a large community barbeque for him. He also spoke as a visiting dignitary at the dedication of the new Nashville Municipal Airport in 1936. In March 1939, his duties at GHQ ceased and he was returned to the rank of colonel, though four months later he was given the permanent rank of brigadier general
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 4
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 4 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

by Gen. George C. Marshall, serving on the War Department General Staff in Washington, DC. In 1940, he was given command of the Panama Canal Air Force, and in 1941 became the first air commander to head a joint forces operation. As World War II got underway, Andrews was promoted to even higher positions of authority. In November of 1942, he became commander of all U.S. forces in the Middle East; and in early 1943, he was sent to Europe with similar authority. On May 3, 1943, he died in a plane crash in Iceland, along with Methodist Bishop Adna W. Leonard, Brig. Gen. Charles Barth, Col. Morrow Krum, and others; only one man survived. Andrews received many posthumous honors, including the addition of an oak leaf cluster to his Distinguished Service Medal; the renaming of an airfield in Maryland in his honor (which was subsequently renamed Andrews Air Force Base in 1947); the naming of an airfield in the Dominican Republic in 1944; and the dedication of a street in his hometown of Nashville, Tenn. He was survived by his wife, Jeanette, and three children: Allen, Josephine (Mrs. Hiette S. Williams Jr.); and Jean, who was unmarried at the time of his death, but later married Martin F. Peterson. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Scope and Contents of the Collection
Manuscripts, including some correspondence, periodicals, newspaper clippings, and related materials about the military career of Army Air Corps general and Nashville, Tenn. native, Frank Maxwell Andrews, most dating from 1929-1943, although some items are as early as 1908 or as late as circa 1950. The manuscripts subseries primarily consists of periodicals featuring articles about Andrews and his military career. A few other items, such as tickets and invitations are also included in this subseries. There is a small amount of correspondence, although most items of this nature have been pasted-over with newspaper clippings. Nevertheless, some of the original letters can still be read, at least in part. Clippings document Andrews's career in great detail, provide numerous anecdotes, and include information about his wife, Jeannette, and her father, Gen. Henry T. Allen. Information on other Andrews family members, such as Frank Maxwell Andrews's parents, James D. and Lula Andrews, and his siblings, James D. Andrews, Jr., William Valery Andrews, and Josephine Sykes, is also included.

Clippings are especially strong about Andrews's actions and influence during his assignments in the Panama Canal Zone and Caribbean, with GHQ Air Force, and the uproar caused by his statements before a House Committee in which he recommended taking over airbases in French and British possessions if America was threatened by enemy troops holding those bases. There are also numerous accounts about his death in a plane crash in Iceland in 1943, along with Methodist Bishop Adna W. Leonard, Brig. Gen. Charles Barth, and Col. Morrow Krum who also died. A few clippings provide information about Andrews's involvement, with his father, in the push to get a new airport for Nashville, Tenn.; a visit to Sky Harbor airport near Murfreesboro, Tenn. in 1936; and a grand celebration in his honor hosted by Col. Henry Dickinson of Nashville in 1936, where he was awarded a trophy. Some clippings also discuss Army Air Corps training, war games, planes, strategy, and reorganization, as they relate to Andrews's career and influence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 5
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 5 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

Researchers are advised to consult Series I: James D. Andrews Series of this collection, which documents in more detail Frank Maxwell Andrews's efforts on behalf of his father's actions to obtain a new airport for Nashville. The younger Andrews often provided advice, specifications, and opinions about sites under consideration for a new airfield. He also assisted by providing information about the affect of airplanes on patients in insane asylums, an issue which threatened to stall or kill plans to develop the Harris farm site, near the Central State Hospital in Nashville. Series I also contains some personal correspondence between father and son, in which Frank Maxwell Andrews occasionally discusses places where he is stationed, his family, or other subjects. Researchers should check the finding aid to Series I for more details.

One newspaper article from Series III: Miscellaneous Nashville Subjects, is included in this finding aid, since it concerns Frank Maxwell Andrews. In addition to the biographical information on Frank Maxwell Andrews, there are a number of articles or anecdotes which relate to his two brothers, James D. Andrews Jr. who served in the engineers, and William Valery Andrews, who was also in Army aviation. Especially noteworthy is a clipping from Nov. 1941 (Folder 79) in which William Valery Andrews states that the Japanese population of Hawaii would be loyal to the United States in the event of war between the U.S. and Japan.

Organization/Arrangement of Materials
The collection is organized into the following series:

I. James D. Andrews Series
II. Frank Maxwell Andrews Series
III. Miscellaneous Nashville subjects

This finding aid concerns only Series II. Additional finding aids are available for other series. Series II is divided further into the following subseries by format:

A. Manuscripts, 1921-c.1950 (no arrangement scheme)
B. News clippings, 1908-1946 (bulk 1930-1943) (no arrangement scheme)

Some items are very fragile, and must be handled with care.

Index Terms
Personal Names:
Allen, Henry T. (Henry Tureman), 1859-1930
Andrews, Frank Maxwell, 1884-1943
Andrews, James David, 1857-1937
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 6
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 6 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

Andrews, James David, b. 1887
Andrews, Jeanette (Jeanette Allen) Andrews,
Lula Maxwell, 1859-1932
Andrews, William Valery, b.1888
Barth, Charles Henry, d. 1943
Dickinson, Henry, Colonel
Krum, Morrow, d. 1943
Leonard, Adna W., d. 1943
Sykes, Josephine (Josephine Andrews), b. 1892

Corporate Names/Organizations:
General Andrews Airport (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)
Montgomery Bell Academy (Nashville, Tenn.) -- Alumni and alumnae --Biography
Sky Harbor (Airport : Murfreesboro, Tenn.)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 7
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 7 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 8
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 8 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

Two additional photographs concern Frank Maxwell Andrews, but their provenance is unknown. They may or may not have originally been a part of the original Andrews Papers. They are part of the Nashville Room Historic Photographs Collection and are identified as follows:

P-95 Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, in uniform, outdoors at unidentified location, car and building behind him.
P-1961 Trophy cup presented to Frank M. Andrews.

Immediate Source of Acquisition: Source of acquisition unknown, but donated probably before 1980.

Ownership and Custodial History: Unknown provenance. Many materials probably collected by James D. Andrews, although a number of items are dated after his death. Some materials may have been collected by the sister of Frank Maxwell Andrews, Josephine Sykes.

Processing Information: Collection was originally physically housed in the library in three different areas: Persons Ephemera Subject Files; closed stacks shelf; oversize drawer. No original order was discernable within the materials. Materials were consolidated into one collection and artificially organized into three series by Library staff, and rehoused in appropriate storage containers. Accruals: No further accruals are expected.

Other Finding Aids
See additional finding aid for Series I – James D. Andrews and Series III – Miscellaneous Nashville subjects
References to Works by or about Collection Creator/Topic The Tennessee State Library and Archives holdings include the William Valery Andrews Papers. William was Frank Maxwell Andrews's brother. A biography by DeWitt S. Copp entitled Frank M. Andrews: Marshall's Airman (Washington, D.C.: Air Force History and Museums Program, 2003) is available online (as of Apr. 2009) at: http://www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil/Publications/fulltext/FrankMAndrews.pdf

Detailed Description of the Collection
Series II. Frank Maxwell Andrews Series, 1908-c. 1950, .6 cu. ft.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Page 9
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 9 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers
Sub-series A.

Frank Maxwell Andrews Manuscripts, 1921-c. 1950, .2 cu. ft. Series Abstract/Description: Manuscripts, including some correspondence and numerous periodicals containing articles about Frank M. Andrews and his military career.

Arrangement: No arrangement scheme
Container List: Folders 60-71, 77-78 Sub-series B. Frank Maxwell Andrews Clippings, 1908-1946 (bulk 1930-1943), .4 cu. ft. Series Abstract/Description: Newspaper clippings, many from the Nashville Banner, and Tennessean, but including a number of other newspapers from other cities, concerning the military career of Frank M. Andrews. His promotions and numerous special assignments are well-documented, and a significant portion of the clippings are about his death and posthumous honors.

Arrangement: No arrangement scheme
Container List: Folders 71-74, 79, 82-841 item in Folder 85, part of Series III and concerning Frank M. Andrews, is described below.

Container List Abbreviations:
FMA = Frank Maxwell Andrews
JDA = James D. Andrews

Subseries A – Manuscripts
Folder Summary of contents

60 Admission ticket to General Andrews Day at Col. Dickinson's farm, June 14, 1936; menu & program from Mid-South Section of American Society of Civil Engineers meeting Oct. 25, 1940; paper from dedication of Andrews Blvd. June 13, 1943; V-mail from Joe Thompson Jr. to "Cousin Josephine" Sykes, May 9, 1943, telling of his meeting w/Gen. Andrews and reaction to Andrews' death.

61 The Ground Ace, Apr. 1, 1921, vol. 1 no. 1, published in Weissenthrum, Germany. Cover photo of Maj. Frank M. Andrews "Our Chief."

62 "Notice to Aviators," May 1, 1921, No. 5, U.S. Navy Dept. Information about various landing fields in the United States, markings, use of radio & pigeons.

63 The Reserve Officer, Jan. 1935, vol. 12, no. 1, U.S. Army. Article: "Air Force Commander Plans Maneuvers."
------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 10
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 10 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

64 The National Aeronautic Magazine, Feb.-Mar. 1935, vol. 13, no.2 & 3, National Aeronautic Association. Article: "Our New GHQ Air Force."

65 U.S. Air Services: Feature Aeronautical Magazine, Commercial and Military, May 1935, vol. 20, no. 5, Air Service Publishing, Inc. Cover photo of Brig. Gen. Frank M. Andrews, Commander of GHQ Air Force, and article, "Significance of the General Headquarters Air Force" by Lt. Col. John D. Reardan.

66 The Bee-Hive, Oct. 1935, vol. 9 no. 10, United Aircraft Corporation. Article: "General Andrews Sets World's Records with Hornet-powered Martin Bomber."

67 Time magazine, July 29, 1940, vol. 36, no. 5. Article: "National Defense," includes profile of Brig. Gen. Frank M. Andrews.

68 The American Legion Magazine, March 1942, vol. 32, no. 3. Article: "Leading the Army Team," includes profile of Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews.

69 Air Force: The Official Journal of the Air Force Association, Sept. 1947, vol. 30, no. 9.

70 Unidentified notes or essay about the worldwide political consequences of World War II, c. 1950

71 This folder, although part of the clippings subseries, contains some manuscripts. Clippings have been pasted on to manuscript letters, presumably written by FMA. Portions of the letters are legible, but much is obscured by clippings. Letters date from 1930-1932. from Washington, DC Dec. 9, 1930, FMA to mother: Reference to David (perhaps James D. Andrews Jr.) stationed in Panama, having sinus difficulties, may return to States; F---? Field, possibly located in Central or South America, near Panama, or in Washington DC; Apr. 3, 1932, FMA to JDA: tells of flying over jungle so thick that the ground could not be seen, mentions Guatemala; unidentified fragment of letter, possibly continuation of previous: Costa Rica, Panama, will start for New York Apr. 16 [1932?] in the Republic [airplane?]; from Washington DC July 14, 1931, FMA to JDA: "Judith, David and the children" were at "our bachelor house" for dinner, played bridge, David looks well but still complains of ailments but expects to get out of hospital soon, Nelson has recovered from his operation; from Mather Field, Sacramento, Calif. Apr. 6, 1930, FMA to JDA: "I am glad to know that the board of experts recommended the Harris farm. You may get a big sale out of it." put on a show in San [Francisco? Fernando?]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 11
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 11 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

77 The War Cry Feb. 1932, includes photograph of FMA and father JDA at Sky Harbor, Tenn.

78 London Calling, June 6-12, 1943, article, "HQ ETOUSA," notice of FMA's death as going to print Subseries B - Clippings

71 Dates: 1908-09, 1917-18, 1921, 1923-24, 1928-29, 1930-33, 1935-37,1946 Newspapers: Tennessean, Nashville American, Nashville Banner, Washington Post, Dayton Journal, Chicago Daily Tribune, (unidentified)Shreveport, Louisiana Subjects: FMA promotion from Maj. to Lt. Col. and from Col. to Maj. Gen.; FMA flights in U.S. and Europe, incl. Coblenz, Germany to London, England; seaplane record attempt by FMA; visits by FMA to parents in Nashville; FMA's opinions on Nashville airport; FMA's family incl. wife and son; FMA visits Cuba; airplanes flown by FMA; Lt. J.D. Andrews Jr. sent to Europe as engineer in rebuilding efforts; FMA directs war games and maneuvers at Dayton, OH and Chicago, IL; Johnnie Andrews & women's polo; FMA meets with Ray Murphy of American Legion; FMA promoted to Maj. and transfers from cavalry to aviation; FMA service with 8th Cavalry; various promotions of FMA; death, funeral, obituary of Charles Sykes, Gillespie Sykes, and Lula Andrews. Persons & Businesses: FMA; JDA; JDA Jr.; Johnnie Andrews (FMA's wife); Ray Murphy, National Commander American Legion; Gillespie Sykes; Charles Sykes; Lula Andrews.

Locations: Cuba; San Antonio, TX; Dayton, OH; Coblenz, Germany; London, England; McConnell Field, Nashville, TN; Sky Harbor, Murfreesboro, TN; Washington, DC; Chapman Field, Miami, FL; Barksdale Field; Fort Ethan Allen, VT; Yellowstone National Park; Fort Yellowstone; Panama; Central America; South America; Mather Field, Sacramento, CA; Guatemala; Costa Rica; San Francisco or San Fernando, CA; Harris farm site, Nashville, TN; Maps, Photos, Illustrations (in newspapers): Photos of Johnnie (Mrs. Frank M.) Andrews; Col. FMA and airplanes on maneuvers; Gillespie Sykes; Charles S. Sykes.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 12
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 12 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

Notes: Many clippings have been pasted on to manuscript letters, presumably written by FMA. Portions of the letters are legible, but much is obscured by clippings. For details, see entry for this folder in Manuscripts Subseries.

72 Dates: 1930, 1934-37 Newspapers: Nashville Banner, Tennessean, Washington Herald, Presbyterian Tribune Subjects: 27th Pursuit Squadron of First Pursuit Group stops at Sky Harbor under command of FMA; FMA's "air office" plane; FMA as head of GHQ Air Force; Andrews family history provided and controversy and defense of FMA's statements concerning war appears in Presbyterian Tribune article; Baker Board (results in formation of GHQ); R.O.T.C. in Nashville high schools; Barbeque hosted at Col. Henry Dickinson's farm in honor of FMA

Persons/Businesses: FMA, JDA Locations: Sky Harbor; Nashville high schools Maps, Photos, Illustrations (in newspapers): FMA, JDA, Mrs. JDA, FMA's sister Mrs. Gillespie Sykes; airplanes in formation, photo of trophy presented to FMA by Nashville citizens

73 Dates: 1921, 1930-32, 1934-36, 1939, 1942 Newspapers: Tennessean, Nashville Banner, San Francisco Examiner, Miami Herald, Washington Post, Pathfinder, New York Times Magazine, San Diego Union, Miami Daily News

Subjects: FMA's testimony before House committee that US may need to seize British and French possession in time of war & breach of secrecy by Rep. John Jackson McSwain, related uproar; Capt. William V. Andrews with British Squadron leader Carnegie at Bolling Field; tribute to FMA(after his death); FMA promoted to Maj. Gen.; breaking of 3 world records by FMA; war games and maneuvers in California and Miami; description of flight from Coblenz, Germany to London, England; biographical sketches of JDA and his three military sons; establishment of GHQ Air Force; statements by FMA on various subjects incl. readiness, strategy, defense; address to National Aeronautic Association about U.S. mainland defense and state of the Air Force; inspection of Panama Canal Zone defenses by Sec. of Navy.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 13
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 13 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

Persons/Businesses: FMA, JDA, William V. Andrews; JDA Jr.; Sec. Navy Frank Knox; Rear Adm. Clifford Evans Van Hook; Rep. John Jackson McSwain of SC.

Locations: Caribbean; Bolling Field; Panama Canal Zone; Coblenz, Germany; London; Miami, Florida; California. Maps, Photos, Illustrations (in newspapers): FMA, JDA, JDA Jr., William V. Andrews, air dignitaries and officers, Sec. Navy Frank Knox, Rear Adm. Clifford Evans Van Hook

74 Dates: 1925, 1937, 1943
Newspapers: Memphis Press Scimitar; Cincinnati Times-Star; Nashville Banner; Memphis Commercial Appeal; New York Herald Tribune; unidentified San Diego newspaper; New York Times; unidentified St. Louis newspaper; Subjects: Death of JDA; death of Lula Andrews; deaths of FMA, Methodist Bishop Adna W. Leonard, Brig. Gen. Charles Barth, Col. Morrow Krum and others in crash in Iceland; dedication of airfield in Dominican Republic in FMA's name; posthumous award of Oak Leaf Clusters and Distinguished Service Medal to FMA; FMA's burial in Arlington National Cemetery

Persons/Businesses: JDA; Lula Andrews; FMA; Bishop Adna W. Leonard; Brig. Gen. Charles Barth; Col. Murrow Krum
Locations: Iceland; Arlington National Cemetery; Dominican Republic Maps, Photos, Illustrations (in newspapers): FMA; Bishop Leonard

79 Dates: c. 1929, 1935-36, 1940-42 Newspapers: Spartanburg (SC) Herald, Banner, Tennessean, Denver Post, Collier's, New York Times, Memphis Commercial Appeal, Baltimore Sun Subjects: FMA's courtship, marriage, and honeymoon "on horseback" father-in-law objected to aviator so he went to cavalry; Gen. Hq. Air Force to be established at Langley Field, FMA to command; FMA assumes command of GHQ AF (1000 planes unified from throughout country); FMA visits Lowry Field, Denver; Col. William V. Andrews says Japanese in Hawaii would be loyal if war comes between U.S. & Japan, Nov. 1941;
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 14
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 14 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

Lt. Gen. FMA commander in Canal Zone; Flying Fortresses and training and organization under FMA; Brig. Gen. FMA, Lt. Col. JDA Jr., Lt. Col. William Valery Andrews to speak at American Society of Civil Engineers Mid-South Section in Memphis (Oct. 25, 1940); sham battle hosted at estate of Col. Henry Dickinson in FMA's honor; report of Lt. Gen. FMA on anti-submarine measures taken in Caribbean, incl. photojournalist's eyewitness account of attack by sub near Aruba

Persons/Businesses: FMA; Jeanette Allen (wife); Maj. Henry T. Allen(father-in-law); Col. William V. Andrews; Lt. Col. James D. Andrews Jr.

Locations: Langley Field, VA; Lowry Field, Denver, CO; Hawaii; Panama Canal Zone; Memphis; Sky Harbor, Murfreesboro, TN; Nashville Municipal Airport; Caribbean; Aruba

Maps, Photos, Illustrations (in newspapers): FMA as cadet at West Point and with father, JDA; numerous military photos of FMA; photo of airplanes in formation over Capitol at Washington DC; all 3 Andrews brothers together in Memphis; sham battle at Col. Dickinson's estate in Nashville.

82 1930, Apr. 27, Tennessean – Lt. Col. FMA in command of forces in airwar games training exercise in California, photographs of FMA and airplanes in maneuvers, incl. smokescreen over Capitol bldg. in Sacramento 1933, Oct. 23, Detroit Sunday Times – Col. FMA commander at Selfridge Field; flying hazards and risks; photographs of pilots and FMA 1935, Dec. 8, Miami Herald – Brig. Gen. FMA headquarters at Chapman Field, Miami. Photographs of FMA, airplanes and activities at field, in preparation of 8th Annual Miami All-American Air Maneuvers air show, Brig. H.H. "Hap" Arnold 1935, Apr. 21, Denver Post – Air Attack is form of Air Defense; photographs of Maj. Gen. Douglas MacArthur; Lt. Col. FMA; how to defend against and avert an invasion or attack against continental U.S.; need to increase air force and add bombers; increased funding needed; Maj. Gen. J.E. Fechet 1935, undated, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine Section – "Caught in the 200-Mile-an-Hour 'Breath of Death'" – describes narrow escape of Chief Test Engineer from being sucked into a wind tunnel – presumably this must be Col. FMA, since his pictures are featured with the article
-----------------------------------------------------------
Page 15
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 15 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

83 1936, Feb. 23, Banner – "Father Greets Son in Office Plane" – photograph of James D. Andrews and Maj. Gen. Frank Andrews inside of the general's plane which serves as an office. "Gen. Andrews' Office Plane Makes Stop at Sky Harbor," news article, discusses details of plane, required use of parachutes, military flying, crew. 1936, June 15, Banner – "Nashville Aviation Leaders Welcome General Andrews," photograph of several men including General Andrews, Will T. Cheek, Col. Henry Dickinson, Col. Herbert Fox in car at Sky Harbor. undated, Tennessean – "'Red' Army Planes Bomb and Gas Sixth Corps Encampment," article about war games in Michigan and mock attack by Red aerial forces against Blue encampment. General Andrews ordered aviation attack. 1936, June 14, Banner Magazine – "Nashville Honors its distinguished Soldier-Flier, Citizens Will Present Trophy to Maj.-Gen. Frank M. Andrews, Head of the General Headquarters Army Air Force, at Reception and Barbecue Today" – full page spread including numerous photographs, includes biographical information, and info about GHQ Air Force. 1942, Mar. 22, Tennessean – "Guardian of the Canal, Risking His Neck Normal for General Andrews" – summary of Andrews' service until this time, and description of his duties as head of Caribbean Command, which guards the Panama Canal Zone 1940, Dec. 1, Commercial Appeal (Memphis) – "They're In His Army Now" – Training operations at Ft. Knox, including tank corps; Andrews's role in organizing the Army and training influx of new draftees, including organizing tank corps and use of parachute troops; Andrews has reputation for being able to fly in difficult weather conditions; follows a hypothetical infantry soldier "Bill Jones" through his training program.

84 Articles concerning death of Gen. Andrews, and dedication of airfield in Dominican Republic in his honor Feb. 22, 1944 - La Nacion (Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic) May 5, 1943 – unidentified paper May 5, 1943 – Tennessean Series III. Miscellaneous Nashville Subjects(Referred to here because a portion of their contents concern Frank Maxwell Andrews. Only descriptions relating to Series II subjects have been excerpted for this finding aid. Additional material within the listed folders, as well as entire folders which do not
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Page 16
Frank M. Andrews Series:
Page 16 of 16
Last updated: 6/17/2009
James D. Andrews Papers

contain materials related to Series II are omitted from this list. Refer to finding aid for Series III for details not appearing here.)

85 1921, July 24, Banner, "Weekly Gravure Pictorial" – "Some of Uncle Sam's Nashville Army Officers," including: Capt. B.J. Shoemaker, Maj. Frank Maxwell Andrews, chief of American air service in Germany, stationed at Coblenz, Germany, Maj. John Milum, Lt. S.G. Hughes, Capt. James D. Andrews, Jr., First Engineers, Camp Dix, NJ, Capt. Ben Allen Mason, Col. Lytle Brown? (illegible), Capt. Robert Rush Hawes, Jr., 1st Lt. Wm. Valery Andrews, Air Service, Washington DC, Gen. William R. Smith
___________________
NATIONAL MESEUM OF THE UNITED STATES AIR FORCE
Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews

Before his premature death in 1943, Frank Maxwell Andrews played a major role in building the small U.S. Army Air Corps of the 1930s into the powerful U.S. Army Air Forces of World War II. Furthermore, he had become one of the key military commanders in the United States' armed forces.

Born in Nashville, Tenn., on Feb. 3, 1884, Andrews entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in July 1902. Upon graduating from West Point in 1906, he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the cavalry. Andrews remained in the cavalry for 11 years, and he served at various posts, including the Philippines and Hawaii.

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Andrews thought his cavalry unit would not be sent overseas, so he transferred to the Aviation Section of the Army Signal Corps. After a short time in the office of the Aviation Section in Washington, D.C., Andrews went to Rockwell Field, Calif., in 1918. There, he earned his aviator wings at the age of 34. Ironically, Andrews never went overseas during the war. Instead, he commanded various airfields around the United States and served in the war plans division of the Army General Staff in Washington, D.C. Following the war, he replaced Brig. Gen. William "Billy" Mitchell as the air officer assigned to the Army of Occupation in Germany.

After returning to the United States, Andrews assumed command of Kelly Field, Texas, and he became the first commandant of the advanced flying school established there. In 1928 he attended the Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field, Va., and the following year he went to the Army Command and General School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, Andrews served as the chief of the Army Air Corps' Training and Operations Division for a year before taking command of the 1st Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, Mich. After graduation from the Army War College in 1933, Andrews returned to the General Staff in 1934.

In March 1935 General Andrews took command of the newly formed General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force, which consolidated all the Army Air Corps' tactical units under a single commander. The Army promoted Andrews to brigadier general (temporary) and to major general (temporary) less than a year later. Under his command, GHQ Air Force started the development of air power that became the mighty U.S. Army Air Force.

A vocal proponent of the four-engine heavy bomber, Andrews advocated the purchase of the Boeing B-17 in large numbers. The Army General Staff disagreed with Andrews, believing it better to purchase a large number of twin-engine light and medium bombers like the Douglas B-18 rather than a small number of four-engine heavy bombers. Through his insistence, however, the War Department purchased enough B-17s to keep the program alive.

His tour as the GHQ Air Force commander ended in 1939, and he reverted to his permanent rank of colonel. The Army assigned him to the same position to which Gen. Mitchell had been sent after vigorously advocating the importance of air power. To many, it appeared that the Army was punishing Andrews for advocating the B-17 so forcefully. However, after less than four months, the Army reassigned Andrews as Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations with the rank of brigadier general.

In 1941, promoted again to lieutenant general, Andrews became commander of the Caribbean Defense Command, which had the critically important duty of defending the southern approaches to the United States including the vital Panama Canal. In 1942 Andrews went to North Africa, where as commander of all United States' forces in the Middle East, he helped to defeat Rommel's Afrika Korps.

In February 1943 Andrews became the commander of all United States forces in the European Theater of Operations. In his memoirs, Gen Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces in WWII, expressed the belief that Andrews would have been given the command of the Allied invasion of Europe -- the position that eventually went to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Unfortunately, on May 3, 1943, the B-24 carrying Andrews on an inspection tour crashed while attempting to land at the Royal Air Force Base at Kaldadarnes, Iceland. Andrews and 13 others died in the crash, and only the tail gunner survived.

Andrews Air Force Base, Md., is named in honor of Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews.
______
U.S. soldier and air force officer who contributed signally to the evolution of U.S. bombardment aviation during his command (1935–39) of the General Headquarters Air Force, first U.S. independent air striking force (he was named commander of the newly created General Headquarters Air Force in 1935).

A determined though moderate advocate of strategic air power, Andrews is credited with development of the Boeing B-17 bomber; his command became the model for the powerful army air forces of World War II. During the war Andrews, as air commander in the Caribbean and later as head of the Caribbean defense command, was the first U.S. airman to command an entire theatre. He was promoted to lieutenant general in 1941. In February 1943, three months before his death in an air crash, he assumed command of all U.S. forces in Europe, succeeding Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower when the latter was named Allied Commander of the North African theatre of operations.
____________
AMERICAN AIR MESEUM IN BRITIAN

General George C. Marshall said late in life that there was only one general he had been able to "prepare all around" for the supreme command of the invasion of Europe, and his name was not, "Ike".

Frank Andrews had been preparing himself for that moment through more than three decades of Army service. But perhaps his greatest contribution to Allied victory happened during his term as commander of the Army's General Headquarters Air Force from 1935 to 1939. In that role, he advocated tirelessly, against the implacable opposition of the top brass, for the acquisition of heavy bombers to defend the country. He managed to keep the B-17 alive as an experimental aircraft so that it could be rolled into mass production once the country recognized that war was coming.

Andrews' advocacy for the B-17 earned him a demotion and exile in 1939, as his superiors sent him to occupy the same dilapidated office on a San Antonio base that his mentor Billy Mitchell had occupied at the time of his disgrace. But when General Marshall became chief of staff later in 1939, his first appointment was to make Andrews his G-3, the head of operations and training. The outgoing chief of staff and War Department officials strenuously opposed the appointment, but Marshall threatened to reject his own appointment if thwarted.

Marshall later recalled that the appointment made Andrews "the first supervisor of the mobilization of the army, which involved about 176 new units." That job had put him "in close touch with the ground forces," Marshall said, and Andrews "did a splendid job" in the role.

When the war came to U.S. territory on December 7, 1941, Lieutenant General Andrews was in command of all U.S. military forces in and around the Panama Canal Zone, which was viewed as a likely target of attack.

In 1942 Andrews went to North Africa, where, as commander of all United States' Forces in the Middle East, he helped to defeat Rommel's Afrika Korps.

In February 1943, Andrews became the commander of all United States Forces in the European Theatre of Operations. In his memoirs, Gen Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, commander of the Army Air Forces in WWII, expressed the belief that Andrews would have been given the command of the Allied invasion of Europe, the position that eventually went to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower. Unfortunately, on May 3, 1943, the B-24D, Hot Stuff, carrying Gen. Andrews on an inspection tour crashed in bad weather, while attempting to land at the Royal Air Force Base at Kaldadarnes, Iceland. Andrews and 13 others died in the crash, and only the tail gunner survived.

Joint Base Andrews (formerly : Andrews Air Force Base), the airport of the president of the United States, is named in honor of Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews.

Lt. General Andrews was in the spring of 1943 US commander in the European Theatre of Operations; it was rumored that he was tipped for an even higher position. The 93rd Bomb Group's Liberator, Hot Stuff, the very first USAAF bomber to complete 25 missions in Europe, was, at the time, scheduled to return to the USA to promote the sale of War Bonds.

General Andrews chose to fly to Iceland on Hot Stuff. Many believe he had been summoned back to Washington by his boss, General Marshall, although the available evidence suggests he was just planning a quick visit with US Forces in Iceland. Accordingly, five members of Hot Stuff's crew were offloaded and their places given to General Andrews and his staff. Needing to land in Iceland to refuel, they encountered low clouds and snow showers, and, following several aborted attempts to land, they crashed into the side of a mountain. Of the fifteen men on board only one, the tail gunner, survived. A memorial to the 14 men who died there was unveiled near the site in May, 2018, the 75th anniversary of the accident.

NATIONAL AVIATION HALL OF FAME
FRANK MAXWELL ANDREWS
Born: February 3, 1884, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Death: May 3, 1943
Enshrined: 1986

As commanding general of "GHQ Air Force" from 1935-39, he prepared the Army air arm for global war, which "Hap" Arnold characterized as "the first real step ever taken toward an independent United States Air Force."

First airman on the War Department General Staff, directing operations and training Army-wide as assistant chief of staff, G-3, 1939-40.

Organized and led the Panama Canal Air Force, later Caribbean Air Force, 1940-41, and prototype for overseas numbered air forces.

As the U.S. Theater commander in the Middle East, 1942-43, he employed the new Ninth Air Force to help defeat General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Corps. In December 1942, proposed a European war strategy for the year 1943.

Became overall commander of the U.S. European Theater of Operations in February 1943 with the mission to revitalize the air campaign against Germany and oversee planning for the projected invasion of Europe.

A founding father of the separate U.S. Air Force of 1947, whose birth he did not live to see. Andrews AFB, Md., named in his memory.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Frank Maxwell Andrews papers

Title
Frank Maxwell Andrews papers
Summary
Correspondence, memoranda, speeches, reports, articles, military records, flight records, financial records, newspaper clippings, photographs, and other papers relating chiefly to Andrews's service primarily in the U.S. Army Air Service (later the U.S. Army Air Corps). Subjects include the organization and administration of the air arm of the U.S. War Dept. and operations of the U.S. Army Caribbean Defense Command at the beginning of World War II. Correspondents include Henry Harley Arnold, Lawrence Dale Bell, Gerald C. Brant, George H. Brett, James Eugene Chaney, Malin Craig, Alexander P. de Seversky, Reuben Hollis Fleet, Benjamin D. Foulois, Louis Arthur Johnson, George C. Kenney, Hugh Johnston Knerr, Frank Dorwin Lackland, Arthur Bliss Lane, Boaz Walton Long, Lesley James McNair, George C. Marshall, H.C. Pratt, Augustine Warner Robbins, Carl Spaatz, Henry L. Stimson, Ralph Talbot, Walter Reed Weaver, Oscar Westover, Harry Hines Woodring, and Burdette S. Wright.

Contributor Names
Andrews, Frank Maxwell, 1884-1943.
Subject Headings
- Arnold, Henry Harley,--1886-1950--Correspondence
- Bell, Lawrence Dale,--1894-1956--Correspondence
- Brant, Gerald C.--(Gerald Clark),--1880-1958--Correspondence
- Brett, George H.--(George Howard),--1886-1963--Correspondence
- Chaney, James Eugene,--1885-1967--Correspondence
- Craig, Malin,--1875-1945--Correspondence
- De Seversky, Alexander P.--(Alexander Procofieff),--1894-1974--Correspondence
- Fleet, Reuben Hollis,--1887-1975--Correspondence
- Foulois, Benjamin D.,--1879-1967--Correspondence
- Johnson, Louis Arthur,--1891-1966--Correspondence
- Kenney, George C.--(George Churchill),--1889-1977--Correspondence
- Knerr, Hugh Johnston,--1887-1971--Correspondence
- Lackland, Frank Dorwin,--1884-1943--Correspondence
- Lane, Arthur Bliss,--1894-1956--Correspondence
- Long, Boaz Walton,--1876-1962--Correspondence
- McNair, Lesley James,--1883-1944--Correspondence
- Marshall, George C.--(George Catlett),--1880-1959--Correspondence
- Pratt, H. C.--(Henry Conger),--1882-1966--Correspondence
- Robins, Augustine Warner,--1882-1940--Correspondence
- Spaatz, Carl,--1891-1974--Correspondence
- Stimson, Henry L.--(Henry Lewis),--1867-1950--Correspondence
- Talbot, Ralph,--1897-1918--Correspondence
- Weaver, Walter Reed,--1885-1944--Correspondence
- Westover, Oscar,--1883-1938--Correspondence
- Woodring, Harry Hines,--1887-1967--Correspondence
- Wright, Burdette S.--(Burdette Shields),--1893-1961--Correspondence
- United States.--Army--History--World War, 1939-1945
- United States.--Army.--Air Corps
- United States.--Army.--Air Service
- United States.--Army.--Caribbean Defense Command
- United States.--War Department
- World War, 1939-1945--Aerial operations, American
- World War, 1939-1945--Caribbean Area
Notes
- Arranged in eight series. Series 1: General Correspondence and Other Papers, 1924-1942; Series 2: Family Correspondence, 1924-1942; Series 3: Official Papers, 1920-1943; Series 4: Financial Papers, 1929-1942; Series 5: Speech and Article File, 1925-1942; Series 6: Miscellany, 1929-1943; Series 7: Printed Matter, 1930-1943; and Series 8: Addition.

- Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Frank Maxwell Andrews Collection, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

- Gift, Jeanette A. Andrews, 1949.
- Air Force officer.
- Collection material in English.
- Finding aid available in the Library of Congress Manuscript Reading Room and at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms010030

5,500 items.
19 containers.
8 linear feet.
Repository
Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA dcu http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.home
Library of Congress Control Number mm78011015

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, Washington, DC
Frank Maxwell Andrews
by Walter Stoneman
whole-plate glass negative, March 1943
NPG x169558, 169559 and 169560

FRANK M. ANDREWS: Marshall's Airman
DeWitt S. Copp
Air Force History and Museums Program Washington, D.C.
2003

Foreword
As we conclude our year-long recognition of the 100th anniversary of powered flight, we take this opportunity to recognize and pay tribute to airmen of the past and present. We do this with an eye toward inspiring airmen of the future.

General Frank M. Andrews was an inspirational figure in our history and it is fitting that we highlight his accomplishments and contributions in the creation, shaping, and development of the United States Air Force. As the organizer and commander of the prewar General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force, he was the first airman to have centralized nationwide command of Air Corps bombardment, attack, and pursuit units.

The advent of GHQ Air Force marked one of the first decisive steps on the road to the birth of a separate air service. Nevertheless, likely due to his personal modesty and untimely death in a B-24 crash in, May 1943, while commanding the European Theater of Operations, he has been a background figure in our history. General George C. Marshall, wartime Chief of Staff of the Army, captured the magnitude of his tragic loss to the Allied war effort by characterizing Andrews as one of the nation's "few great captains."

As we celebrate the Centennial of Flight, I'd like to encourage the use of upcoming venues to spread-the word about lesser-known, selfless warriors, such as General Andrews, who epitomize the values we highlight to airmen today. On March 7, 2003, we formally named the Air Combat Command head-quarters building after General Andrews. We are also close to establishing an endowed scholarship fund in his memory for Air Force Academy Preparatory School Cadets and creation of a permanent "Andrews" exhibit in the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB. Additionally, we plan to integrate his story into our professional military education programs.

Memorializing General Andrews is one example of how we can commemorate the Centennial of Flight, emphasizing the tremendous impact an individual's efforts and contributions can have on aviation and the Air Force. Thank you for your support of this important project for aviation, the United States Air Force, and our nation.

John P. Jumper
General, USAF Chief of Staff
___
In war nothing is so commonplace as sudden death. But when the victim is a high-ranking officer of recognized brilliance, his loss can be shattering and the ironies of what could have been linger amidst the engulfing emptiness of unfulfilled promise. So it was on the afternoon of May 3, 1943, when the B–24 Liberator in which Lt. Gen. Frank M. Andrews was flying crashed against a fog-shrouded promontory while making a landing approach to Meeks Field near Keflavik, Iceland. Andrews was commanding general of all U.S. forces in the newly formed European Theater of Operations (ETO). He had held his post for just three months, having arrived in England on February 4, the day after his fifty-ninth birthday. The decision to transfer him from his command of U.S. Middle East Forces had been approved by President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill, and the Combined Chiefs of Staff at the Casablanca Conference in January.

It was U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall who had summoned Andrews to the conference from Andrews's headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. Privately, however, Marshall had previously informed Andrews of what was afoot, for between them lay a tacit bond of understanding and mutual appreciation that dated back to their first meeting in August 1938. At that time, Andrews was a temporary major general in his third year as Commander of General Headquarters (GHQ) Air Force, the combat arm of the Army Air Corps that had been established in 1935. Marshall, a permanent brigadier general who had once served as chief of staff to Andrews's father-in-law, Maj. Gen. Henry T. Allen, had just been appointed head of the Army General Staff's War Plans Division (WPD).

Andrews, in that last summer of European peace, was having a difficult struggle, trying to prevail on Secretary of War Harry H. Woodring and War Department leaders to build up the country's air strength. In confidence, Andrews had told Eugene Meyer, publisher of The Washington Post, that every major country in the world was better prepared than the United States to defend itself. Helping to prove the point, Secretary Woodring had decided to cancel any further production of the Flying Fortress, the Boeing B–17, around which Andrews was determined to establish U.S. air supremacy.

What Andrews confided to Meyer, he told Marshall in far greater detail when the new Chief of WPD spent a day with him at Langley Field, Virginia, GHQ Air Force headquarters. Following their initial get-together, Marshall wrote his host: "I think I learned quite a bit about the problem and will look forward to some further meetings when I have better coordinated my thoughts with the information available . . . ." The further meetings quickly followed. Andrews invited Marshall to accompany him on a comprehensive nine-day inspection of the GHQ Air Force and aircraft production facilities. No ground officer in such a high level and important post had ever been given a more complete tour, and no airman was better equipped to play host than Andrews.

They traveled aboard Andrews's Douglas DC-2, with Andrews often at the controls and Marshall riding in the copilot's seat. What Andrews introduced Marshall to in their coast-to-coast sweep was an eye-opener for the fifty-eight-year-old War Plans Chief. The production, servicing, training, and quality of an air force could not be achieved with the same equations that were used for ground forces. It was an axiom few ground officers had ever under-stood. As Andrews put it:

If it takes three months to train an artilleryman and ten months to build a cannon, then you have got to have a reserve of cannon. But when it takes a year to build an airplane and up to three years to train the crews to operate and maintain that airplane, then there is not quite such a big argument for a reserve of airplanes, particularly where aeronautical advancement in types is as rapid as it is today. We cannot afford to equip the air force of tomorrow with the airplanes of yesterday.

What Andrews had to say about air power and the potential of its strategic use with the B–17, his position on the need for air independence from War Department control, and what he believed must be done in all these areas, was also of prime interest to Marshall. He listened, he observed, he asked questions. The journey and its impact—air maneuvers to air depots, experimental aircraft design to outdated operational models—was a unique experience for Marshall. In retrospect, there is little doubt that Andrews's career was to be directly affected by, it while Marshall's understanding and appreciation of air power was strongly influenced.

An astute judge of character, Marshall obviously came away impressed by the clarity of Andrews's thought and the genial yet firm assurance of the airman's manner. Both came from southern backgrounds. Andrews was born in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 3, 1884, and though Marshall was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on December 31, 1880, he had graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1901. Marshall was reserved and outwardly cool by nature, his sense of humor well concealed; Andrews's warmth was nicely balanced by his directness and the quality of his intellect. Both men shared an inbred, old-world courtesy. Andrews's deft touch in seeing to it that his guest, wearing one less star than Andrews, was shown the deference and respect of a senior at all their stops could not have been lost on Marshall.

When the tour was over, Marshall wrote to his old mentor, Gen. John J. Pershing, expressing his enthusiasm, describing the itinerary, and remarking: "Altogether I had a most interesting trip professionally and a most magnificent one personally." To Andrews he declared: "I want to thank you again . . . for the splendid trip you gave me, and especially for your personal efforts to make it a pleasant one and highly instructive. I enjoyed every minute of the trip and my association with you, and I really think I acquired a fair picture of military air activities in general. A little study will help me to digest something of all I saw... With warm regards."

What Marshall was looking for was an orderly plan by which the country's defenses could be built, with the focus on production and training. No such plan existed, and he appreciated having the benefit of Andrews's thoughts, particularly as they applied to the lack of a realistic program for building U.S. air power.

Three and a half years earlier, in December 1934, another Army officer of equal stature had directly influenced Andrews's career. The officer was Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas MacArthur. The two had not flown anywhere together, but MacArthur selected Andrews to command the airmen's long-sought GHQ Air Force. MacArthur never offered a public explanation for his choice of Andrews for this most important of air commands. But a quick look at some of Andrews's previous activities offers insight into the forward reach of his thinking at a time when the military was economically and strategically constrained, locked into the rigidity of the status quo.

Shortly after MacArthur was appointed Army Chief of Staff in November 1930, Andrews developed an intense interest in instrument flying. It had been aroused by the Mount Shasta affair of 1931, in which he had been a principal planner and organizer while serving as Chief of Training and Operations (G-3) in Air Corps Chief Maj. Gen. James Fechet's office. This was a Billy Mitchell-type test in which bombers of the 2d Group, led by Maj. Herbert A. Dargue, would fly out to sea from their base at Langley Field and sink the Mount Shasta, an old freighter. After two days of searching in bad weather, the bombers finally located the ship and scored one hit out of forty-two bombs dropped. Navy guns sank the target, much to the chagrin of the airmen. The claim that the Air Corps was capable of defending U.S. coastal waters took a beating. Andrews, not looking for excuses, weighed the causes of failure and arranged to take the three-week instrument training course, inadequate at best, at the Advanced Flight School, Kelly Field, Texas.

A year later he got permission from Air Corps Chief Maj. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois to publicize air mobility by making an epic journey. He led a flight of five aircraft from San Antonio, Texas, to France Field in the Panama Canal Zone. Previously, Andrews had flown coast to coast numerous times in everything from DH-4s to the new all-metal Northrop Alpha, but the long operation of shepherding antiquated Keystone bombers and a pair of Douglas amphibians on a 2,200-mile jaunt down through Central America stimulated ideas on all-weather flying.

In June 1933, Andrews graduated from the Army War College and was assigned to command the 1st Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field near Detroit, Michigan. He was resolved to eradicate the belief of most pursuit pilots that when the weather was bad you did not fly if you could avoid it. At Selfridge, he found there was not a single gyro compass or gyro horizon-standard equipment on commercial aircraft-amongst the planes of his three squadrons. His letters to the chief's office brought no direct response. Close friends in the Materiel Division at Wright Field told him that orders from above were to not parcel out the gyros because they were in such short supply and must be held against the far distant day when new aircraft would be coming off the line.
Although Andrews made very little progress in establishing an instrument program at Selfridge, Foulois did set up two small "avigation" schools at Langley and at Rockwell Field, California, in the fall of 1933. Brig. Gen. Oscar Westover, Assistant Chief of the Air Corps, was a prime mover in that development. He and Andrews had been classmates at West Point, and through him, Andrews's letters may have had an effect. Andrews knew only too well that inadequate instrument training was dictated as much by the War Department attitude as by lack of funds.

Immediately after Andrews arrived at Selfridge, an event occurred that strongly reinforced his thinking about instrument flying, logistics, and navigation. He became host at an internationally publicized aviation venture. In July 1933, Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo led a flight of twenty-four twin engine Savoia Marchetti torpedo bombers on a 6,000-mile flight from Orbetello, Italy, to North American cities. Andrews led two squadrons of the 1st Pursuit Group to greet the Italian flyers in the air as they crossed the U.S.-Canadian border near Detroit and to escort them to a landing at Chicago's World Fair.

The colorful Italian air marshal went on to a presidential welcome at the White House, completing the longest mass flight in aviation history. The War Department classed the undertaking as an aerial stunt with little military meaning, but Andrews, and most airmen, recognized the obvious significance of the mission. Balbo and his men had clearly demonstrated that with proper aeronautical equipment and training, airmen-soon would be able to fly long distances in adverse weather to reach any adversary's industrial heartland. If the War Department failed to recognize what military leaders of other countries foresaw, U.S. air power could not. keep pace. Andrews was determined to see that this did not happen.

It was several months after the Balbo flight, in October 1933, that the Drum Board, appointed by MacArthur and named for its chairman, Mai. Gen. Hugh A. Drum, endorsed creating a consolidated combat air arm, the GHQ Air Force. While reaffirming the Air Corps' mandate of coastal defense, this fell short of Air Corps' aspirations for greater independence from War Department control. The only airman on the five-man board was Foulois. The others were ground-bound General Staff officers whose view of air power and its potential was fixed not so much on the sky as on the trench. Further, the Drum Board scoffed at the meaning of the Balbo epic, and to Andrews and other like-minded airmen the message was clear. The Air Corps would never realize its potential until it gained independence.

There was nothing new in the belief, nor in the concept of a combat arm for the Air Corps. It had been forced into being by political circumstances rather than War Department willingness to accept a long-sought military necessity. The plan for an air force with its own command and staff within the Army Air Corps had first been proposed in 1923 by the Lassiter Board (named for its chief, Brig. Gen. William Lassiter), that examined the role of U.S. military aviation. The board recommended that while the main purpose of an air arm was to directly support the ground forces, some units not so engaged could be used against other targets as a separate strike force. The idea had originated with Col. Edgar S. Gorrell during World War I and was tried out with considerable success by Billy Mitchell against the Germans in the St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns in 1918. Five years later, the Lassiter Board approved assembling such a peace-time force, but it took more than a decade and a gaggle of additional boards before MacArthur gave his blessing. This was not so much a blessing as a recognition that the War Department was caught between fractious congressional demands supporting a separate air force and the War Department securing a coastal defense mission for the Air Corps over Navy objections.

When, by the end of the year, nothing had been done to implement the Drum Board's recommendations establishing a GHQ Air Force, the impatience of those who believed that a separate air force was imperative grew, and with it a determination to make a new bid for independence. Such a bid must come through congressional action, and Selfridge Field in Michigan was somewhat far afield to exert political influence. Yet Andrews did. His ability to do so was fostered by his good friend., Lt. Col. Walter H. Weaver, who was serving on Foulois's staff as G-2, Chief of Information. Their friendship dated back to West Point days. They corresponded frequently, and Weaver's letters reflected the general spirit of insurrection within the chief's office. Associates such as Maj. Carl "Tooey" Spaatz and Capts. George C. Kenney and Robert Olds had had their fill of what they saw as War Department stultification and were determined to risk whatever was necessary to get free of it.

Weaver sent an advisory to this effect not only to Andrews but also to Lt. Col. Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, commanding at March Field; to Maj. Hugh J. Knerr, Chief of the Field Service Section in the Engineering Branch at Wright Field; and to Lt. Col. Horace M. Hickam, commanding the 3d Attack Group at Fort Crockett, Texas. Weaver declared that the Air Corps was "in a rather crucial position. I don't know if anyone is going to help it unless we do something for ourselves."

The "doing something" would be to draft a bill for independence and put it in the hands of a congressman powerful and persuasive enough to hold open hearings. At the hearings, a host of airmen would testify and support the bill's passage. In the midst of a shattering depression and an unsympathetic administration, it hardly seemed likely that many congressmen or much of the public would be interested in creating a new branch of the service. But the airmen had a champion in Congressman John J. McSwain of South Carolina, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. The War Department saw him as a threat; Benny Foulois's conspirators regarded him as a friend.
Weaver was welcome in the upper social circles of the military hierarchy, his father having risen to command the Coast Artillery. Through such association, he had come to know McSwain. Since the congressman had never met Andrews, but suddenly made a special flight to Selfridge Field in January 1934 to spend a weekend at the Andrews's home, there is little doubt that the meeting had been arranged by Weaver.

The first thing McSwain did upon arriving back at the Capital was to write Andrews a letter of appreciation and thanks. On February 2, 1934, directly after his visit to Selfridge, McSwain threw the War Department into a tailspin by offering a bill to his committee that embodied everything separate air force proponents were seeking. Just the day before, the War Department had placed before McSwain its long overdue recommendation that incorporated the creation of a GHQ air force. But it failed to include any of the burning wants of the airmen, such as a separate promotion list. Some could see in the McSwain bill a counter-demand aimed at forcing more concessions from the General Staff, knowing full well the bill itself would never pass. MacArthur, who referred privately to the Military Affairs Chairman as "McSwine," was not inclined to offer anything further, and it appeared that a battle royal was in the making. At that moment the entire issue was overshadowed and held in check by an unexpected event.

On February 9, 1934, through a piece of political misjudgment, President Roosevelt stripped the commercial air carriers of their franchises to carry the mail and assigned the task to the Air Corps. Air Corps Chief Foulois had agreed that in ten days' time he could have his planes equipped and ready to take on the specialized task of maintaining a major share of the nation's airmail routes. There were three factors militating against the success of the Air Corps mission, which used the acronym AACMO-Army Air Corps Mail Operation: its ill-equipped aircraft, its pilots who were ill-trained for instrument flying, and the worst nationwide winter weather on record.

In the ten days between Roosevelt's decision and the start of AACMO, Foulois, who had given considerable lip service to the need for instrument training but had been prevented by lack of funds from doing much about it, launched a frantic campaign to equip his planes with radios and rudimentary flight instruments, and to give the pilots some instrument training. It was too late. In March, Roosevelt was forced by a series of weather-related crashes to ground the operation for ten days.

As the winter weather abated and pilots gained experience in weather and night flying, the Air Corps' performance improved. Nevertheless, the public generally, and the War Department and certain congressmen specifically, considered the 78-day AACMO a dismal failure. In truth, despite the loss of a dozen pilots and crewmen and 66 accidents, crews delivered more than 770,000 pounds of mail without losing a single letter and completed more than 65 percent of all scheduled flights.

During the airmail operation, Andrews continued to push for instrument equipment, but with little success. Thirty-eight of his sixty-two pilots were assigned to AACMO, among them Lts. Curtis E. Lemay, Earle E. Partridge, and Mark Bradley. The 1st Pursuit Group was so stripped of men and equipment that it no longer could be considered operational, but Andrews could take heart in the fact that during AACMO the Air Corps established its first blind flying school at Wright Field. Capt. Albert R Hegenberger, a pioneer along with Jimmy Doolittle in the development of military instrument flying, was the school's first director.

The Air Corps' improving performance after AACMO's disastrous beginning did not dispel the outcry within the War Department and Congress for investigation of air preparedness. A new board was formed-the fifteenth in six-teen years-to be chaired by and named for former Secretary of War Newton D. Baker. It served the same old purpose: on the surface, to chart a course for the Air Corps, and beneath it, to assure that the course was not directed toward independence. It, like the Drum Board, whose members were a part of the Baker Board, was in favor of a GHQ air force.

On May 23, 1934, even before the Baker Board had made known its recommendations, Andrews was ordered to report to the War Department to chair a committee that was, he told his father, "to make recommendations on organization of the Air Corps for greater mobility." Serving with him were such keen thinkers as Spaatz, Hickam, Knerr, and Kenney. Their work was completed by mid-June. What they had created was the organizational structure for a combat air arm.

Andrews learned in October that he was to return to Washington to serve in the War Department Operations and Training Section, G-3, charged with working out the tables of organization for a GHQ air force he and his committee had put together in June. In the two months that followed, he realized that his duties might well come to naught. Congressional hearings and board recommendations notwithstanding, the formation of a GHQ air force was in no way assured, since General MacArthur's continuance as Army Chief of Staff was in doubt. Andrews saw that, without MacArthur's determination, powerful elements within the faceless General Staff would see to it that the concept of an air force remained just that, smothered in words and grounded by committees. Fortunately, President Roosevelt stopped playing coy and let it be known that he wanted Douglas MacArthur to remain as Chief for another year.

Thereupon, the biggest question in town was who would command the nascent air force. Benny Foulois was out, in political trouble on all fronts. His assistant chief, General Westover, who had been AACMO's titular commander, was considered a contender. So were some seventy other officers, many of them senior to Andrews. It was MacArthur alone who made the final decision to name Frank Andrews Commander of the GHQ Air Force with a two-grade promotion to brigadier general. That Andrews, a "heretofore obscure field officer," as Time magazine put it, was selected was a tribute to his demonstrated ability as a commander and staff officer. It was also, to some degree, a result of fortuitous circumstances.

Following graduation from West Point in 1906, Frank Andrews had served eleven years as a cavalry officer in the Philippines, Hawaii, and the States. In 1917, he transferred to the Signal Corps for duty with the Aviation Division. Three years earlier, Andrews had married Josephine "Johnny" Allen, daughter of General Henry Allen, and had moved into the all-important social inner circle of the War Department, where his father-in-law was a power. Both Andrews and his wife also were champion polo players.

From August 1920 to February 1923, Andrews commanded the U.S. Army Air Service's European air force of thirteen DH-4s under his highly popular father-in-law, who was in charge of all U.S. occupation forces in Germany. On his return to the States, Andrews spent four years at Kelly Field, Texas, in flight training assignments, followed by attendance at the Air Corps Tactical School, then at Langley Field, Virginia, and the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Since he was not in Washington when Billy Mitchell was fighting his battles of the 1920s, Andrews had never been considered one of "Mitchell's Boys," although he was a confidant of Mitchell after the latter's resignation in 1926.

Deputy Chief of Staff Hugh Drum, in a letter to Newton Baker, explained the reasoning behind Andrews's selection to head the GHQ Air Force: "We all feel he [Andrews] will be able to meet the situation and develop the force along the lines contemplated. Furthermore, in addition to being an efficient flyer, he has been in harmony with all the War Department has been trying to do."

On March 1, 1935, Andrews officially assumed command of GHQ Air Force at Langley Field. Permitted to name his own principal staff, Andrews chose Majs. Hugh Knerr as his chief of staff; Harvey B. S. Burwell as G-1; Follett Bradley as G-2; Capt. George Kenney as G-3; and Maj. Joseph E. McNarney as G-4. All were vintage airmen; Bradley, Kenney, and McNarney combat veterans. Knerr, Bradley, and Kenney had long been strong indepen-dence advocates. Knerr was a bomber-first zealot, a stubborn visionary who not only foresaw but also played a direct role in developing the long-range bomber. Kenney's three years at MIT helped to stimulate ideas that encompassed every-thing from aeronautical experimentation to correcting the translation from French to English of the strategic bombardment theories of Giulio Douhet. Bradley, like Knerr, was a graduate of Annapolis. He had taken his first airplane ride as an observer with pilot Lt. Hap Arnold in 1911. Most recently, he had hand-carried an air independence petition coast to coast getting the signatures of airmen who were in favor of a separate air force. Burwell had flown with the 1st Aero Squadron on the Mexican border in 1916. Later he served as operations officer for Andrews in Germany. McNarney, who commanded observation squadrons in France during the war, had written a book on air tactics and was well regarded in the War Department. Noted for the caliber of his intellect and the dourness of his manner, McNarney kept his own counsel on the issue of inde-pendence.

At the outset, independence became a moot question for Andrews. Calling the sixty-seven officers of his staff together, he said, in effect: This is the best we can get.
Separation from the Army will come some day, but for now we have a five-year mandate to build a combat air force, and we are going to do that. We have three wings—the 1st at March Field, commanded by Brig. Gen. Hap Arnold; the 2d here at Langley, commanded by Brig. Gen. H. Conger Pratt; and the 3d at Barksdale, Louisiana, commanded by Col. Gerald Brant. We have a service test to prepare for in December. Let us get to it.

What they had to work with was considerably less than what had been recommended by the Drum and Baker Boards and approved by MacArthur. Instead of a force of 980 aircraft, Andrews had 446, with only 176 classed as modern. Instead of 1,245 pilots, he had less than half that number, and his enlisted strength was equally inadequate. But if the numbers did not add up, the spirit and professionalism to make the combat air force fly was fully there. There was enormous enthusiasm throughout the Air Corps for Andrews and for the new organization.

In those first few months of shakedown and preparation there was only one sour note, and it was sounded privately between Andrews and MacArthur. Prior to taking command, Andrews had testified in executive session before McSwain and his Military Affairs Committee. He had been asked questions concerning U.S. response to the very remote possibility of an attack by Canada, Great Britain, or France. He used as the basis of his answers War Department contingency plans for such an eventuality. Several weeks later, through not untypical carelessness, his testimony and that of War Plans Division Chief Brig. Gen. Charles E. Kilbourne were released to the press. The headline results embarrassed Roosevelt, who demanded of McSwain and Secretary of War George H. Dern that something be done to prevent such leaks. Dern agreed, and replied that the officers had given their private opinions, supposedly in secrecy.

Andrews explained that his testimony "represented views on an abstract military study with no concrete political thoughts or reference." He believed that would be the end of it, in spite of outcries by peace groups calling for his and Kilbourne's dismissal. Instead, he was stunned by a harsh letter of admonition from MacArthur. Certainly the Chief of Staff was fully aware of the circum-stances surrounding the incident and knew that Andrews's statements before the committee were given on the basis of War Department policy.

Andrews called on MacArthur, seeking an answer to what he believed to have been a mistake, and with the knowledge that the letter would become a part of his official record. He came away from the meeting angry and disappointed. MacArthur had brushed the admonition aside, telling Andrews to forget it. Andrews never would. Loyalty up-and-down was an inviolate principle. The fact that MacArthur had selected him as GHQ Air Force Commander made no difference.

Between the time of Andrews's falling out with General MacArthur and his getting to know George Marshall some three years later, profound political and military changes were in progress on a global scale. There had been Italian aggression against Ethiopia, Japanese aggression against China, and a border war between Russia and Japan. There was civil war in Spain in which the Fascist and Communist dictators were testing their weaponry. And in Europe, Hitler was expanding the boundaries of the Third Reich, annexing the Rhineland and Austria, with the Sudetenland and then all of Czechoslovakia threatened next. In all these moves the importance of air power had grown, particularly among the aggressors, and was recognized as a critical weapon in their military-political planning.

Such recognition was much slower within the Roosevelt administration. The reasons are well known: the President's belief in the fleet, a policy of isola-tionism which the public supported in the belief that Europe and Asia should be left to fight their own wars, the geography of oceans protecting the hemisphere from attack, and at root, a continuing failure within the War Department to understand fully or to accept the meaning of strategic air power.
Only in retrospect and with the above in mind is it possible to realize the towering importance of Andrews in his role as GHQ Air Force Commander. It was not so much a matter of the size of his command as it was his view on how the forces must be employed. Any air officer who had passed through the doors of the Air Corps Tactical School knew the doctrine of offensive strategic air power: defeat of an enemy by destroying his industrial capacity to wage war through long-range, high-altitude, precision daylight bombing. Andrews was in a position to translate doctrine into strategy and tactics, no matter the lack of understanding or the opposition in the War Department.

At Selfridge, Andrews had not been able to put through his plan for instrument flight training. At Langley the word went out that all pilots in the GHQ Air Force were to be instrument rated. And soon they were. Mobility was the action word. Instrument flying enlarged mobility as did ever-extending aircraft range, altitude, and speed. Somewhat providentially they coalesced in October 1935 with the production of the first long-range bomber worthy of the name-the four-engine Boeing B–17 Flying Fortress. And then with so much hanging in the balance, when the long-awaited aircraft was ready for competitive judging, it crashed on its maiden test flight at Wright Field. The result was that the Douglas B–18, a mediocre twin-engine plane with far less mobility, was selected to form the backbone of U.S. bomber power for the next five years.

Andrews, recognizing the severity of the loss, acted swiftly. With the sup-port of Brig. Gen. Augustine W. Robins, Chief of the Materiel Division, and the approval of the new Air Corps Chief, Maj. Gen. Oscar Westover, he was able to gain reluctant War Department agreement to purchase thirteen of the big Boeings on an experimental basis.

The first of the B–17s was flown into Langley Field from Seattle, piloted by Maj. Barney Giles and a proud crew, on March 1, 1937. She was a sleek and majestic beauty in the eyes of the beholders. But by then Andrews realized that a modern air force worthy of the name could not be built within the existing command mold—a mold that placed GHQ Air Force and the Air Corps in a competitive, often acrimonious association, controlled by a War Department whose antiquated organizational structure acted as a ponderously held bridle on the need for change.

Secretly, with Hugh Knerr, Andrews had drafted a new bill for Congressman J. Mark Wilcox of Florida, a member of the House Military Affairs Committee who had long championed the concept of a separate air force. The Wilcox bill proposed "to create an Air Corps under the Secretary of War, to be known as the United States Air Corps." As Andrews put it, "The bill would recognize air power as being on an equal footing with military and naval power… . The Chief of Aviation…would be placed on an equal status under the Secretary of War with the Chief of Staff of the Army… ."

When Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig sent Andrews a copy of the bill and asked for his comments, Andrews, with a perfectly straight face, wrote a detailed critique in support. Later, when Craig called him to talk about the bill, the Chief of Staff, with an equally straight face, admitted he had not taken the time to read it. Craig already knew that the President and powerful congressmen, not to men-tion the Secretary of War, were against even holding hearings on H.R. 3151. Voices crying out in the wilderness of fixed concepts are quickly silenced. If nothing else, Andrews's attempt illustrated the change in his thinking. His desire and determination to seek mobility was horizontal as well as vertical.

Since the political and military emphasis was on defense, it was not possible to speak in terms of offense. But a bomber like the B–17 with a cruising speed of 230 miles an hour, a service ceiling of 25,000 feet, and a range of 2,200 miles, was obviously a defensive-offensive weapon of great promise. And while Secretary of War Woodring was calling, in 1938, for a balanced air arm with a promised 2,320 planes by June 1940, based on the belief that two or three smaller planes could be bought for the price of one large one, Andrews concentrated on building a strategic air force around the power and promise of the B–17. What he hoped to do was convince Westover and the War Department that over the next three years ninety-eight of the Boeings should be purchased, enough to equip his Air Force with two groups.

He demonstrated the B–17's promise time and time again, in maneuvers and long-distance flights. For example, in August 1937, during war games with the Navy, the 2d Bomb Group's B–17s, operating under almost impossible ground rules, sought out and soaked the USS Utah with water bombs 285 miles off the California coast. The Navy insisted that the outcome of these games be kept from the public. It was not.

Matters dealing with the promise of aircraft came to a head in May 1938. Conducting the largest aerial maneuvers on record, Andrews sent three of his B–17s out to sea some 700 miles in very stormy weather to intercept the Italian liner Rex, which represented an attacking task force. The photograph of two of the B–17s flying past the Rex, taken by Capt. George W. Goddard in the third bomber, made the front page of newspapers around the world. It sent a message to friends and to potential adversaries alike. The message bounced off the War Department, and Craig, instead of praising Andrews for the performance, informed him that henceforth his planes were not to venture more than a hundred miles off the coasts. When Andrews passed this order to Colonel Robert Olds, Commander of the 2d Bomb Group, Olds informed his crews that from now on all practice missions over open water would remain within the hundred-mile limit but courses would be plotted north and south.

The continuing effort by Andrews to augment the strength of his B–17s fell on deaf ears; cost and necessity were the principal barriers. When he let it be known that ultimately he wished to build his bomber strength to 244 B–17s, or one-quarter of his promised total while phasing out the inferior B–18, opponents began to refer jokingly to the Boeing as "Andrews's folly."

In a letter to Hugh Knerr, who had been transferred to Fort Sam Houston, Andrews wrote: "The situation with reference to our strategic mission and the proper equipment with which to perform it, seems to be getting progressively worse, and we have no court of appeal that I can think of . . . ." Then came the August 1938 meeting with Marshall. The War Plans Division Chief, upon return-ing from his nine days of air power indoctrination, found that, indeed, the airmen had no real representation on the General Staff. He was to become Andrews's court of appeal.

On October 18, 1938, Andrews sent Marshall congratulations on his becoming Deputy Chief of Staff. He enclosed a copy of a talk he had recently given at the War College, saying it expressed the views of

practically the entire operating personnel of the Air Corps . . . [who] believe in a larger percentage of high performance, large capacity bombers . . . . In every test or exercise we have ever had . . . this plane stands out head and shoulders above any other type; yet for 1940 and 1941 our estimates do not include a single one. For the support of the Monroe Doctrine on the American Continent such a plane would be of inestimable value. In the control of three important defiles of the world, Singapore, the Mediterranean, and Panama . . . the large capacity plane is easily the outstanding weapon.

He continued in considerable detail: ". . . any program of increasing our air power that does not provide us with an increase of equipment, a practical personnel plan concurred in by the men who, in peace and war, are responsible for the operations, is a half-baked plan and will prove a disappointment when the emergency arises."

Andrews then confessed with characteristic frankness,
I have only a few months [left] in this job of mine, and I will be glad to get out of it for, as it works out, I carry the responsibility and very little authority. I don't even know who my principal assistants are to be until their selection is announced. There is no future in it, and it is like sitting all the time on a powder keg. But in these few remain-ing months I hope to be included in the discussions and conferences on future plans and policies for the development of our air force… .

He was not included, possibly as a result of the meeting he had been invit-ed to attend the previous month. On September 21, 1938, Air Corps Chief General Westover was killed in a crash at Burbank. The next day Andrews was asked by Army Chief of Staff Malin Craig to report to him in Washington. He found himself in a meeting with Craig and all the assistant chiefs. Craig informed him they were prepared to recommend to the President that Andrews succeed Westover on the condition that he stop trying to promote the B–17. Andrews politely refused to accept the condition, and a few days later it was announced that General Hap Arnold was to be the new Air Corps Chief, a choice Andrews and many other airmen hailed as an excellent one.

In view of his position, Andrews knew that when his tour of duty as GHQ Air Force Commander was up on March 1, 1939, his tenure would not be extend-ed. He hoped that he would be assigned to head the Training Command, and if not that, the Air Corps Tactical School. Instead, with no prior warning, he was given the Billy Mitchell treatment: reduction in rank to his permanent grade of colonel and exile to Fort Sam Houston as District Air Officer. There can be no doubt that Secretary of War Woodring approved the action, whether he originated it or not. The last straw for Woodring had been a public declaration by Andrews at the National Aeronautic Association convention on January 16, 1939, that the U.S. was a sixth-rate air power. This made headlines across the country, just at the time Woodring was assuring the public of the nation's aerial strength.

When Andy Andrews, wearing mufti, was given a farewell review at Langley, there were few dry eyes. The mail that flooded in, reflecting sorrow, anger, frustration, and praise for him, came from admirers high and low, military and civilian. Truth be known, Andrews was not all that downcast by the vindictive action. He was confident that his isolation would be of short duration, partly because he could see the direction of world events and partly, perhaps, because he knew that Marshall would not let him go to seed.

On July 1, 1939, George Marshall became Acting Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. His first move was a formidable one. He appointed as his new Assistant Chief of Staff for Training and Operations (G-3), Frank M. Andrews, promoting him to a brigadier general of the line. Later Marshall was to say that when he submitted his choice to Woodring, Assistant Secretary of War Louis Johnson, and outgoing Chief of Staff Malin Craig, he knew he had a fight on his hands. He added it was probably the only time in the trio's association they had ever been in full agreement on anything. Nevertheless, Marshall prevailed and the appointment was announced. It was the first time in U.S. military history that an airman had been appointed one of the four assistant chiefs of staff on the Army General Staff.

Andrews received word of it while on leave. The telegram recalling him was followed by a sustained roar of approval from airmen everywhere. Not since F. Trubee Davison had been Assistant Secretary of War for Air (1926-33) had an air officer felt there was anyone "up there" who knew what they were all about. As Andrews had said to Marshall in a previous letter: "Under our present scheme of organization the operating personnel have very little contact with the powers that be. We know our stuff, but we cannot get it across." Now, thanks to the new Chief of Staff, the "stuff " was going to get across. With Marshall's encouragement, Andrews would bring other air officers into G-3 with him. The point was not lost on anyone.

The fifteen months Andrews served as Army G-3 was a period of turmoil. In Europe the Allied and Axis powers went to war, and relations between the U.S. and Japan grew increasingly tense. 'Trying to build U.S. defenses in a strongly isolationist atmosphere produced political conflict and made increases in military strength difficult and slow. Andrews's job of developing the method and policies of buildup covered all the component parts of the Army, not just the air, and measured against these demands were the military needs of England and France. It was a time of great effort and greater shortages.

Overall, U.S. policy went under the heading of Hemispheric Defense, and nowhere was this defense seen as more vulnerable than in the Panama Canal Zone. Military and naval shortages in the Zone were endemic. The President of Panama, Arnulfo Arias, was pro-Nazi. So were numerous military and political leaders of other Latin American countries; still others were on the fence. South America was webbed with 20,000 miles of German-run airlines, some flying Junkers aircraft that could be converted quickly to bombers. There were large populations of German, Italian, and Japanese residents throughout Central and South America. French Guiana as well as the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique were viewed as critical danger points following the fall of France. To further heighten White House concerns, British intelligence was working round-the-clock, anxious to create in Washington the fear of Nazi action in the hemisphere. Toward that end, the British sent Roosevelt a supposedly authentic secret German map, showing the Third Reich's partitioning of South America.
The fall of France shook U.S. political and military leaders hard. In September 1940, the President revealed that fifty World War I destroyers had been turned over to the desperate British in return for permission to build bases on their Caribbean islands. In October, it was announced that Andrews would be going to Panama to command the newly established Panama Canal Air Force (PCAF).
When Andrews, now a major general, arrived in the Canal Zone in early December, just a year before Pearl Harbor, he saw air power as the backbone of both Canal and U.S. coastal defense. He thought he had a fairly good picture of the Zone's existing air strength, but four months later he was writing Marshall,

. . . you probably know that we do not have a modern combat airplane in the entire area . . . . Fifty fighter airplanes, with an effective warning service and complete communications, could accomplish far more in the Canal defense than could five hundred such fighters, operating under present conditions. The warning service planned, with its communications, fails to meet our needs as does also the inter-airdrome communications.

This last involved a fundamental problem of which Marshall was acutely aware. The Commander of the Panama Canal Department, Lt. Gen. Daniel Van Voorhis, was a sixty-two-year-old artillery officer who believed an air force should be used as an adjunct to his artillery and not much else. It was Andrews's job to convince him otherwise and to present a plan of air defense that would encompass the Canal Zone and the Caribbean basin, aiming toward what would eventually become a Caribbean Defense Command. Marshall knew this. Andrews knew this. But somehow Van Voorhis failed to get the message. He was senior in grade to Marshall. His view from Quarry Heights was fixed. Andrews's plan was ignored. What Andrews had in mind was to divide the Caribbean into three regional commands—Panama, Trinidad, and Puerto Rico—each having its own bomber and interceptor forces, each commander having considerable freedom of action, with a central headquarters at Howard Field on the west side of the Isthmus.

The principal defense in Van Voorhis's mind was to be built around coast artillery and antiaircraft units. In April 1941, Andrews was to write Marshall: "Drawing upon all the tact and diplomacy that I possess I feel that I have failed to gain Van Voorhis's complete confidence, consequently, I have made slow progress in selling him my ideas on the organization and operating of the Air Forces in the Caribbean .... Things seem to move so slowly and time is now a precious commodity." Marshall knew how precious, and shortly thereafter Von Voorhis received direct orders from the War Department which jarred him into action. The PCAF became the Caribbean Air Force (CAF), and implementation of Andrews's plan was begun in earnest.

That same month, Brig. Gen. Follett Bradley, who was in overall command of Andrews's skimpy air units in Puerto Rico, was threatening to resign. Andrews flew to Puerto Rico to investigate the problem. The problem was Maj. Gen. Edmund L. "Mick" Daley, in command of the Puerto Rican Department. Daley, an engineer, had been a classmate of Andrews at West Point. Daley's policy was that he commanded all CAF troops while they were on the ground, and Bradley and his staff had control only when the planes were airborne. This was not often, as Daley used the airmen for duties that had nothing to do with building air power. Andrews heard this from Bradley and several squadron commanders and then paid a call on Daley, accompanied by his aide, Lt. Hiette S. Williams, Jr. They were ushered into Daley's vast office, which was furnished with a huge bare desk, a chair, and nothing else. When its owner made no effort to have chairs brought in for his guests, Williams left the room to find one for his CO.

Once Andrews was seated, he inquired mildly, "Mick, where is your paper work?"

"I don't need any, Andy. I make all the decisions myself," Daley said. "How do you keep your staff informed?" Andrews asked.

"I don't need a staff. I don't trust them anyway."

"What happened to the letter I wrote you? I never received an answer." Andrews sounded matter-of-fact.

Daley opened a drawer in his desk, pawed around, and came up with the unanswered correspondence. After a few more questions and equally blase responses, Andrews signaled Williams to follow him out of the office. In the hall he instructed his aide: "Send this message to General Marshall. 'Am relieving Daley this date. Future assignment immaterial.' " He then told Williams to transmit the message outside the normal traffic flow via a direct frequency from San Juan to the War Department.

The significance of Andrews's unique summary action was twofold. Both men were major generals but Daley ranked Andrews on the permanent list. Although Andrews was Chief of the Caribbean Air Force, Daley was not under his command but took his orders from Van Voorhis. Yet Andrews relieved him. He could not have done so without authority from Marshall that outflanked the normal military chain of command. In a letter to Lt. Col. Thomas R. Philips, the Assistant Chief of Staff for Military Intelligence of the Puerto Rican Department, Andrews later wrote: "There is no question but that we have too many congealed minds in responsible positions and that one of our biggest problems is how to correct the existing situation and prevent recurrence in the future." He added that General Marshall was both aware of and worried about the same problem.

During an important diplomatic venture in mid-July 1941, Andrews represented Marshall in making delicate state visits to Latin American capitals, principally Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. While Andrews was in Rio, Marshall informed him he was to succeed Van Voorhis as Caribbean Defense Commander. With the appointment would come promotion to lieutenant general, the first air-man to attain such a rank and the first airman to head a joint command. Amid a deluge of congratulatory messages came one from his wife, Johnny: "You're the brightest star of them all," she cabled. "What took you so long?"

In the last three months before Pearl Harbor, Andrews continued to convert the Caribbean into an "American lake." From the time of his arrival in the Canal Zone Andrews had adopted the belief that war could come at any time, and he impressed the same awareness on all who served with him. He knew that in time, if there was time, all the shortages would be filled; that his organizational structure for the Caribbean was sound and workable. His most serious doubt was the role of the Navy in an area that was largely water but where his own land and air forces, slim as they were, dominated. It all came down to the issue of unity of command and the old sore point of who was in charge beyond land's end. The point was never really resolved before the war came.

In December 1941, Andrews was sent the same alerts from the War Department as commanders in Hawaii and the Philippines, but his airmen had their planes camouflaged and dispersed on outlying jungle strips. When war did come, Andrews's forces were as prepared as they could be under circumstances that left much to be desired: one radar station on the western side of the Canal, a half-dozen B–17s his total heavy bomber strength.

With Pearl Harbor, all attention in Washington was focused on the Pacific. But until the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the Caribbean, generally, and the Canal, particularly, were considered a critical theater of operations where enemy action was anticipated momentarily.

Following the Battle of Midway, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson visit-ed Andrews and returned to Washington tremendously impressed with the Caribbean defenses and their commander. Shortly thereafter, Andrews was sum-moned by Marshall to report to the War Department for a talk. Part of what the talk was about jolted Andrews; in fact, angered him. MacArthur had informed the War Department and Hap Arnold that he was not satisfied with the perfor-mance of his principal airman, Maj. Gen. George H. Brett, and wanted a replace-ment. He suggested Andrews for the job. Ordinarily such a request would have brought a quick rejection because Andrews, like MacArthur, was a theater com-mander, and to come under MacArthur in any guise would be a step down the ladder of command. But these were not ordinary times. The war was in a swirling state of flux, Axis power at its high tide mark, Allied strategy not fully formulat-ed or agreed upon and still badly lacking in necessary forces and equipment. Even so, it does not seem likely that Marshall would have wanted to shift Andrews to the Pacific unless he felt Andrews might be willing to accept the challenge to develop MacArthur's air power against Japan. Andrews said no to the offer and shortly thereafter returned to his Caribbean Command.

When Andrews came again to Washington on October 20, 1942, he knew the purpose was for reassignment. But this time he arrived with a purpose of his own. Through his longtime friend and confidant, Hugh Knerr, who had retired from the Army and was working for Sperry Gyroscope, he had learned that a move was afoot to make the Army Air Forces that had been formed in June 1941 into a separate air force. He was disturbed by what he judged to be the misman-agement of air power at a crucial moment. Through Walter Weaver, he had been trying to get his opinions put before Roosevelt. The point of contact at the White House was the President's military aide, Maj. Gen. Edwin "Pa" Watson. Watson, however, warned Andrews that he was in danger of ruining his career if he per-sisted. FDR was dead set against any moves that did not come as a united rec-ommendation from the top. Andrews was too astute to gamble on such a con-tentious position at such a time. He backed off, willing to accept the present arrangement because of Marshall.

The Chief of Staff had more immediate considerations on his mind, and he had again chosen Andrews to play a major role in them. Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa, was to be carried out principally by U.S. forces, its purpose to secure Tunisia and the Magreb while the British, driving westward out of Egypt, attacked Rommel's Afrika Korps. Egypt was to be the eastward anchor in the nutcracker operation. U.S. units in the area, which, encompassed the Levant, the Nile Delta, Eritrea, and Iran, were largely air and included four heavy bomb groups and a scattering of service commands. The idea was to combine them all under one command—U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East, USAFIME. Marshall, with the Joint Chiefs' approval, wanted Andrews to take over the dis-parate organizations, which were suffering from a lack of cooperation, unify them to support the British Eighth Army, and then use the bombers against Italian and Balkan targets. Additionally, he was to assist in improving the flow of U.S. equipment to the Russians via the Persian Gulf.

On October 30, two days after Gen. Bernard Montgomery launched his attack against Rommel and a week before U.S. forces went ashore in North Africa, Andrews took off for the last time from his Caribbean headquarters and for the first time in a B–24, heading for Cairo, Egypt. The plane was a B–24D, specially equipped with BTO, a newly developed radar device for bombing through the overcast at low level.

While he had served in the Caribbean for nearly two years, Andrews's command of USAFIME was extremely brief, lasting only three months. In that short time he brought cohesion to the widely spaced service units under his control. Two weeks after his arrival he wrote Marshall a detailed account of his progress: no unity of command amongst the British but fine cooperation nonetheless. As to the future: "I am working now on some plans for the use of our bombardment when we get the Axis out of Africa. Now, of course, every-thing is devoted to that objective. I hope soon to be able to make contact with Eisenhower's forces in West Africa with a view to some joint planning in the North African area . . . ." He hoped, he told Hap Arnold, to be able to use his bombers of the Ninth Air Force, under the command of Maj. Gen. Lewis Brereton, against strategic targets. He was anxious to have Brereton's B–24s employed on night raids against Italian shipping and port facilities, using BTO. The problem was that Brereton had only two crews trained to operate the radar equipment, and the British were dead against its use lest it fall into enemy hands. If nothing else, Andrews's desire to use his bombers for low-level bombing by night through the overcast indicated his openness and flexibility in the method of attack. Like George Kenney, Andrews was not married to a single concept of bombardment but was willing to use any technique that would get the job done. He was impatient to get the enemy out of Africa, he told Arnold. "We must have the whole north coast of Africa as one air theater . . . ."

To Marshall, Andrews sent a two-page memo, titled: Thoughts on Allied Nations European Strategy in 1943. He began: "It is assumed that we have as yet no definite overall plan for combined Allied military action for 1943. I feel free, therefore, to advance my own ideas with, however, no claim of originality for them." He foresaw "two main practical lines of action." One was "to build up a force in England to invade . . . the Continent of Europe as soon in 1943 as pos-sible." The other was to "implement an all-out air offensive against the Axis." To this he added corollaries that included a Middle East offensive against the Aegean, hoping to bring Turkey into the war, an invasion of Italy, the establish-ment of air bases there to attack Germany, and the possibility of operations against Norway to protect the northern shipping route to Russia. Of the two plans, he came down on the side of the second.

At Casablanca, two weeks later, the Combined Chiefs of Staff would, in the course of their historic ten-day conference, adopt much of what was in the sec-ond option proposed by Andrews. Andrews's thoughts on future strategy com-bined viewpoints from both sides of the conference table, where the U.S. chiefs felt they were being mouse-trapped by the more carefully prepared and unified British. Agreement was finally reached on all major issues, including the mount-ing of a combined USAAF-RAF bomber offensive against the Third Reich.

In this regard, until the meeting at Casablanca on January 15, 1943, Eisenhower, Arnold, and Spaatz had taken the oft-repeated position that the bombing efforts of the Eighth Air Force in England and the operations of the U.S. Army and Air Forces in North Africa were all a part of one theater and the same command. At the meeting on the 15th, Marshall announced that he felt the time had come to establish a separate European theater of operations in the United Kingdom. He was proposing that Frank Andrews command it. Eisenhower arrived at Casablanca that same day, was informed by Marshall of his wishes, and agreed to the change.

Aside from considerations of geography and an as yet unresolved military campaign, Marshall's motivation for the change is clear enough. The British were dragging their feet on agreement for an invasion of Normandy. Marshall wanted a commander in London who had the qualities of leadership and administrative ability necessary to direct a buildup toward that end. He also wanted an airman on a high enough level to keep the bomber offensive on track—someone who could cooperate with the British but not be swayed by their adroitness and charm. Perhaps the most intriguing point in the sudden shift was that Andrews knew it was coming even before he received a message from Marshall asking him to be in Casablanca within forty-eight hours.

At Casablanca, Andrews received official word of his new assignment and found he had an immediate problem. The continuance of daylight bombardment was in grave jeopardy. Prime Minister Winston Churchill had decided to con-vince FDR that the strategy was not working and should be dropped for RAF type night operations. Arnold, learning of the danger, had sent for Maj. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, Eighth Air Force Commander, and Spaatz to support him in what he saw as a very real threat to a doctrine that had been twenty years in the making. Now Andy Andrews had arrived. The four airmen could join forces to fight for a belief that was the warp and woof of U.S. air power.
Eaker spent a critical half-hour of debate with the Prime Minister. Arnold took a twilight stroll with him, dined with him, and stressed the need to continue daylight operations. Spaatz, who wanted to return to England to resume com-mand of the Eighth Air Force, reiterated the U.S. position in a talk with Churchill. Present also were Churchill's air leaders and Arnold.

Andrews met with the British leader and Air Chief Marshal Charles "Peter" Portal to discuss the directive under which he would be taking command in the ETO. He told the Prime Minister flatly that he felt the main issue before them was daylight versus night bombing, and that it would be a mistake to create a command organization that would force U.S. bombers into night operations. Churchill brought up his earlier talk with Eaker. Later he was to write that Eaker had "almost" convinced him, but there can be little doubt that the convincing was also done by Andrews, Arnold, and Spaatz, not to mention Churchill's Air Marshals Portal and Slessor. Had it been otherwise, there is no telling how profoundly the war in Europe would have been affected. What can be said is that a crucial U.S. air victory was won at Casablanca, not against the enemy but against an Allied leader.

In the three months remaining to Andrews, he established himself in Lon-don and began the organizational and logistical buildup for what in sixteen months would become Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of occupied Europe. His most immediate concern, however, was Ira Eaker's Eighth Air Force. The Eighth had been practically disembowled by the demands of air power for the invasion of North Africa. Due to the needs of seven other theaters and to ship-ping losses to U-boats, promised replacements of crews and aircraft were not forthcoming. Arnold's endemic impatience was making life miserable for Eaker, whose bombers were few and whose losses were mounting. Andrews provided a bulwark and a calm, steady influence He knew that in time the promised men and equipment would arrive. His letters to Marshall show that the problems in England were a repeat of those he had faced in the Caribbean and the Middle East: shortages of equipment and trained personnel and the uncertain exigencies of combined leadership.

In late April, Andrews dispatched Eaker to Washington to resell the Com-bined Bomber Offensive that had been agreed upon at Casablanca but was in trouble due to War Department critics and demands by the Navy. This was Andrews's final action in the long battle to use air power as the principal strategic weapon in the Allied arsenal.
Andrews's most distant command was in Iceland and he decided to go there to inspect the troops and evaluate the men in command. Just before he took off on May 3 with key members of his staff, he wrote a letter to his son, Lt. Allen Andrews. In it he said,
Our air buildup is coming along nicely now but we continue to have a tough time with our daylight bombing. It is quite evident that we have not yet found just exactly the right combination. We should grow better at a faster clip. I am looking for the answers, our losses are running too high. Leadership and experience are two of the trou-bles. We will work it out.

Tragically, there was no more time for him to work it out.

There are those who believe that Andrews's flight to Iceland was the intended first stop on a secret summons to Washington by Marshall. In view of the relationship between the two and the circumstances of the moment, the belief does not seem illogical. The Trident Conference was about to begin in Washington. Hap Arnold had suffered a heart attack and would not be able to attend. Many issues thought resolved at Casablanca were coming unstuck, not the least of which was the Combined Bomber Offensive. That Marshall would want Andrews present for matters dealing with the invasion buildup and the British refusal to be tied down to it, makes sense. Yet, there is no official record of such a recall, even though Andrews's widow was left by Marshall with the impression that such was the case.

Andrews's failure to land, as instructed by air traffic control at Prestwick, Scotland, before proceeding to Iceland, is seen by some as an indication of his haste to reach Washington, but by others as simply Andy Andrews, an instrument pilot who reveled in bad weather and who would use the prerogatives of his rank to override what he considered an unnecessary delay. It is known that had he lived he was soon to receive his fourth star. And so, at the end, a degree of mystery hangs over his departure. He had said that when the end came he hoped it would be in the cockpit, and he got his wish. Everyone else who knew him or served under him deeply mourned his loss.

Marshall, who delivered the eulogy at the memorial service for Andrews in Washington, said of him that he was one of the Army's few great captains. To Johnny Andrews, Marshall had written: "He was a great leader and in his post abroad was on his way to rendering a tremendous service to the Allied cause."

History does not reveal its alternatives, and Andrews's sudden death leaves some haunting questions. Had he lived, would he have commanded the Normandy invasion, as so many of his contemporaries believed? Certainly Marshall had placed him in the position to oversee the buildup for that then-unresolved strategy. And what then? Whatever his future might have been, Andrews's star was in swift ascendancy when it was snuffed out, and all the bright promise of tomorrow became reflections on the ordeals of yesterday, the yesterday of a military leader whose name will ever by joined with strategic air power and the fight for air independence.

DeWitt S. Copp
1916-1999

The name DeWitt Copp is known within the Air Force community pri-marily as the author of the widely acclaimed two volume series on the develop-ment of air power before and during World War II, A Few Great Captains and Forged in Fire, first published in the early 1980s by the Air Force Historical Foundation. Earlier, Mr. Copp, known as "Pete" to his friends, had served as a pilot in the Army Air Forces during World War II and afterwards wrote a number of books and films on military and civilian aviation.

A onetime history teacher and global newsman, he worked in Europe and the Far East as a correspondent for the Washington weekly Human Events, and for the North American Newspaper Alliance. His novels Radius of Action and The Far Side won wide acclaim here and abroad, and his drama, The Long Flight, was featured on NBC television. He also served for several years as a member of the former Air Force Historical Advisory Committee. He lived in Manchester Center, Vermont, with his wife Susan, until his death in 1999.