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Information > Biographies > LIEUTENANT GENERAL EDWARD J. TIMBERLAKE |
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LIEUTENANT GENERAL EDWARD J. TIMBERLAKE
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Retired June 16, 1965.
Died Sep. 3, 1990.
General Timberlake is commander of the U.S. Air Force's Continental Air Command which provides the active-duty Air Force with approximately 360,000 Air Force ready reservists and other support.
He was born in Fort Hunt, Va., Nov. 10, 1909. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy and was appointed a second lieutenant of Infantry June 11, 1931.
Three months later he enrolled in the Air Corps Primary Flying School at Randolph Field, Texas, from which he graduated in June 1932. He then entered the Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas, completed the course in November 1932, and went to Luke Field, Hawaii, for service with the 72nd Bomb Squadron. The following January he transferred from the Infantry to the Air Corps.
While at Luke Field, General Timberlake was assigned as engineering officer of the 40th Attack Squadron. In January 1935 he became a flying instructor at the Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, and during the next five years instructed at Kelly and Brooks fields in pursuit, bombardment and observation aviation. He went to MacDill Field at Tampa, Fla., in July 1940, as adjutant of the 6th Bomb Squadron, and later its commanding officer. In February 1942 he became executive officer of the 98th Bomb Group at Barksdale Field, La., and later commanded the 93rd Bomb Group there.
General Timberlake, who is known to his intimates as "Ted," retained command when the group deployed to England in January 1943. In recognition of General Timberlake's leadership and the affection in which he was held by his personnel, this group became known as "Ted's Flying Circus." The combat record of the "93rd" in World War II is a perpetual monument to the daring and bravery of its heroic airmen. In December 1944, he assumed command of the 20th Combat Bomb Wing in the European theater. General Timberlake was one of the planners of the famed Ploesti raids.
In May 1945, General Timberlake was assigned to Headquarters Army Air Force and two months later was transferred to Bolling Field, D.C., as assistant chief of staff for personnel of the Continental Air Forces. From September 1946 to June 1947, he attended the National War College. After he completed the course he was appointed chief of the Operations Division, Deputy Chief of Staff/Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force.
General Timberlake was assigned in June 1948 to Far East Air Forces Headquarters at Tokyo, Japan, and three months later was appointed commander of the 315th Air Division of the Fifth Air Force, with station at Itazuke, Japan.
He became chief of staff of Fifth Air Force in June 1949, and the following December was named vice commander of that organization. In May 1951, he moved with the Fifth Air Force to Korea, as vice commander and later became its commander.
General Timberlake then returned to the United States, and in August 1951, was assigned to the Ninth Air Force, which he commanded for six years. He assumed command of the Fourth Allied Tactical Air Force (NATO) in July 1957.
In July 1958, General Timberlake became vice commander in chief, U.S. Air Forces in Europe, at Wiesbaden, Germany. He became deputy chief of staff for personnel, Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, in July 1961.
He became commander of the nationwide Continental Air Command on July 1, 1962.
General Timberlake has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, Silver Star, Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters and Distinguished Unit Citation. He is rated a command pilot.
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