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| Information > Biographies > BRIGADIER GENERAL RICHARD T. KING |
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BRIGADIER GENERAL RICHARD T. KING
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Retired April 3, 1963.
Died Dec. 29, 1995.
Brigadier General Richard T. King assumed duties Aug. 24, 1959 as chief of the Air Force Section of Joint Brazil-U.S. Military Commission and chief of the Air Force Section of the Military Assistance Advisory Group in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Richard Thomas King was born in Georgetown, S.C., in 1908. He graduated in 1929 from The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy June 12, 1933 and was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry.
Entering Primary Flying School at Randolph Field, Texas, in October 1933, General King graduated from Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas a year later and remained there until January 1935. Moving to Hamilton Field, Calif., he served with the Ninth Bomb Squadron. He entered the Air Corps Technical School at Chanute Field, Ill., in September 1936, graduated the following June and joined the 99th Bomb Squadron at Mitchel Field, N.Y.
Going to the Panama Canal Zone that September, General King served with the 44th Reconnaissance Squadron and 74th Bomb Squadron, successively, at Albrook Field. He assumed command of the 44th Reconnaissance Squadron in October 1941 at Atkinson Field, British Guiana, going to San Juan, Puerto Rico the following January where he served with the Air Task Force, Eighth Fighter Command and was a member of the staff of Caribbean Sea Frontier, successively.
Ordered to Washington, D.C., in April 1943, General King was a member of the Latin American Theatre Group, War Department General Staff, becoming operations officer in January 1944. Assuming command of the 500th Bomb Group at Walker Field, Kan., in April 1944, that October he took it to Saipan. On Dec. 3, 1944, he was captured and became a prisoner of the Japanese Government, being released Aug. 29, 1945. He assumed command of the 498th Bomb Group at MacDill Field, Fla., in February 1946, entered the Air War College at Maxwell Field, Ala., and graduated in June 1947.
Joining the Strategic Air Command, General King was director of personnel and administrative services at SAC Headquarters, Andrews Field, Washington, D.C., moving with the headquarters to Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., in October 1948, in that capacity. He assumed command of Ramey Air Force Base, Puerto Rico, in August 1950, and later became deputy commander of the 55th Reconnaissance Wing, SAC, there. In August 1951 he went to England as chief of staff of the Seventh Air Division, SAC. Entering the National War College in Washington, D.C., in August 1952, he graduated the following June.
Assigned to Air Force Headquarters, General King was assistant chief of the Policy Division, Directorate of Plans, in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, becoming chief of the Policy Division in May 1954 in which capacity he served until he was reassigned as vice commander of the Air Proving Ground Command. In August 1959, he assumed his present duties in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
His decorations include the Legion of Merit and Silver Star. He is rated a command pilot.
EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROMOTION
He was promoted to first lieutenant (temporary) April 13, 1935; to first lieutenant (permanent) June 13, 1936; to captain (temporary) Sept. 9, 1940; to major (temporary) July 22, 1941; to lieutenant colonel (temporary) Jan. 23, 1942; to captain (permanent) June 13, 1943; to colonel (temporary) Aug. 5, 1943; to lieutenant colonel (permanent) July 1, 1948; to colonel (permanent) Oct. 19, 1949; to brigadier general (temporary) Oct. 27, 1954.
(Current as of March 1962)
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