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| Information > Biographies > BRIGADIER GENERAL WILLIAM T. WOODYARD |
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BRIGADIER GENERAL WILLIAM T. WOODYARD
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Retired Sep. 1, 1978.
Brigadier General William T. Woodyard is dean of the faculty at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
General Woodyard was born in 1919, in St. Joseph, Mo., and graduated from Lafayette High School there in 1937. He earned a bachelor of science and a master of science degree in chemistry from the University of Missouri in 1950 and 1951, respectively, and received a doctor of philosophy degree in higher education from Denver University in 1965. He is a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff School and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
General Woodyard was commissioned a second lieutenant through the aviation cadet program in 1941. After completing training at Randolph Field, Texas, he served as a Training Squadron Commander, Napier Field, Ala., from 1941 to 1944. During this period he also attended the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan.
After serving as Post Air Inspector at Napier Field from January to November 1944, he was trained in the B-17 and B-29 bombers and from April to August 1945 he was a B-29 instructor pilot at Maxwell Field, Ala. General Woodyard became commander of the 448th Bombardment Group in August 1945 and was enroute to 20th Air Force Headquarters in Guam with a flight of B-29's when World War II ended.
He returned to Carswell Field, Texas, and served as a squadron commander with the 19th Bombardment Group from December 1945 to February 1946. From February to June 1946 he was a pilot in "Project Sunset," ferrying B-29's back to the United States from the Pacific.
As commander of the 715th Air Materiel Squadron, Templehof Air Base, Germany, from July 1946 to May 1947, General Woodyard was charged with supplying the city of Berlin and the Allied Forces there during the reconstruction.
After commanding the 4700th Air Base Group at Lawson Field, Fort Benning, Ga., from May to December 1947, he entered the University of Missouri where he earned his bachelor and master of science degrees.
In July 1953 he became chemistry instructor at the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., and later was an associate professor of chemistry. In October 1954 he became associate professor of chemistry at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
As an original member of the Air Force Academy at its interim site at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colo., General Woodyard was instrumental in having the Academy's curriculum recognized among institutions of higher learning. He was professor and head of the academy's Department of Chemistry when he entered the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, Washington, D.C., in August 1961. He returned to his position at the academy in June 1962 and remained until he was named the chief scientist for the European Office of Aerospace Research at Brussels, Belgium, in July 1965.
He was appointed the vice dean of the faculty at the Air Force Academy in August 1967 and a year later he was named dean of the faculty.
He is a command pilot. His military decorations and awards include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit and the Air Force Commendation Medal.
He was promoted to the grade of brigadier general Aug. 1, 1968.
(Current as of December 1975)
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