MacArthur's Airmen - Hubert R. Harmon
 Hubert Reilly Harmon was born in Chester, PA, in 1892, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1915, a classmate of Dwight Eisenhower. Harmon served briefly at Fort Monroe, VA, before being reassigned to Kelly Field, TX. Though many of his early commands were with air units, Harmon did not officially transfer to the Air Corps until 1920. He served as an assistant in the Office of the Chief of Air Service in Washington, DC, in the early 20s and later as chief of its Information Division. In that late 20s and early 30s Harmon served as air military attaché in London, and also as an instructor at West Point. In 1936 Harmon was named as commander of the 19th Bomb Group.
At the beginning of World War II, Harmon was in command of the Gulf Coast Air Corps Training Center, Randolph Field, TX. In 1942, he was promoted to Major General and given command of Sixth Air Force in the Panama Canal Zone. Following his promotion to Lieutenant General in February 1943, Harmon was transferred to the South Pacific as the theater’s deputy air commander. In January the following year, he took over command of Thirteenth Air Force and subsequently commanded all Allied air units during the Solomons Islands Campaign. His stay in the Pacific was short-lived, as in June 1944 he was reassigned back to command of Sixth Air Force in the Caribbean Sea, where he spent the remainder of the war.
 Following World War II, Harmon retained command of Sixth AF, then in 1947 was appointed to the United Nations’ Military & Naval Staff Committee as its senior Air Force member. In 1949 he began to work on what would eventually become the U.S. Air Force Academy, being assigned to USAF headquarters in Washington strictly to work on academy affairs. He retired very briefly – for one day – in February 1953 before being recalled back for further academy duties, before retiring again in June of that year. His second retirement lasted only slightly longer as he was again brought back to active duty in November 1953, again for academy duties. On August 14, 1954, Hubert Harmon became the first Superintendent of the U.S. Air Force Academy, a post he held for almost two years before retiring again, this time for good. He died in February 1957.
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