Lieutenant General Emery S. Wetzel

Lieutenant General Emery Scott Wetzel

• https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/135710939/emery-scott-wetzel
• https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/105232/lieu...

USMA Class of 1929. Cullum No. 8610

He was the son of Emery J. Wetzel and Myrtle Scott Wetzel.
On June 26, 1930, he married Catharine Dixon at Urbana, Ohio

They were the parents of two children.

He was born and raised in Billings, Montana where he attended grammar and high school. After seeing the movie Flirtation Walk in 1925 he decided he wanted to attend West Point. He met his future wife, Catharine Caraway Dixon of Ohio in June 1928 when his class made a trip to Virginia to visit various military branches. He spent Christmas in Ohio where he and Catharine became engaged. When he graduated from West Point he was assigned to the Air Corps. He took his flight training at March Field in Riverside, California. Then, a year after graduation he married Catharine Dixon on June 26, 1930 in Urbana, Ohio. Next, he was assigned to Kelly Field, Texas for advanced flight training. Then he was assigned to the 11th Bombardment Squadron, flying B-2 bombers. In October 1931 he was assigned to March Field until November 1934 when the squadron moved to Hamilton Field in California. He was base adjutant and later the Civilian Conservation Corps adjutant for the March Field district. From January 1935 through 1937 he was assigned to Luke Field, Hawaii. He returned stateside in 1937 to Mitchell Field, Long Island, New York where he flew b-18s and B-10s. He took a three month course at the Air Corps Tactical School in Montgomery, Alabama. In 1940 he was assigned to Reserve duty with the air Corps at Allegheny County Airport. In October 1941 he moved to Washington, D.C. for duty with the Military Personnel Division of the Office Chief of Air Corps. In March 1942 he was the Chief of the decision until he was sent in December 1944 to the War Department General Staff. On July 15, 1945 he was finally in the middle of the war in the Pacific. He was Jimmy Doolittle's Deputy Chief of Staff of the Eighth Air Force. From September 1, 1945 he was A-1 of the Army Air Forces as it moved from Guam to Manila and in 1946 to Tokyo. In 1954 he became commanding General of the Atlantic Division of the Military Air Transport Service at Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts and then McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey. In 1957 he was Vice Commander in Chief, Pacific Air Forces in Hawaii. In 1959 he was Chief of Staff of the United Nations Command in Korea. On August 31, 1961 he retired. His awards included two Legions of Merit, a Bronze Star and a Distinguished Service Medal. He was survived by two sons, eight grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren and a sister, Mrs. O.B. Evans of Spokane, Washington.

Source: United States Military Academy Association of Graduates memorial.
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Lieutenant General, U.S. Air Force

Emery Scott Wetzel graduated from Billings High School in Billings, Montana in 1925. On June 13, 1929 just before the start of the Great Depression, Wetzel graduated from the United States Military Academy and was commissioned as a second lieutenant of Field Artillery in the United States Army. During his time at the academy, Wetzel managed to acquire the nickname 'Pinky.' (He was awarded the moniker because of his pink cheeks.)

The future was uncertain for Pinky's class. In an initial pep talk to the plebe class in 1925, the Master of the Sword had predicted that some of the class might get to be colonels before retirement. He went on to say that despite the slowness of promotion and inadequate pay, a military career was the road to high adventure. Pinky Wetzel took him at his word and considered his entire military career a great adventure.

Lieutenant Wetzel's first operational assignment was as Assistant Operations and Statistical Officer in the 11th Bombardment Squadron at Rockwell Air Force Base, California. In 1931, he saw service at March Field, California with the Seventh Bombardment Group and later became adjutant of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the March Field District under Lieut. Colonel H.H. Arnold.

Captain Wetzel joined the 72d Bombardment Squadron in 1935 at Luke Field, Hawaii. Later, he became Flight Commander of the 50th Observation Squadron at Luke. Pinky left Hawaii in 1937 to become Operations and Intelligence Officer and Flight Commander of the First Bombardment Squadron (Medium) at Mitchel Field, New York.

Wetzel was a student in a 12-week course at the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama in 1940. After graduation, Pinky instructed Air Corps Reserve units at Second Military Area Headquarters, Allegheny County Airport, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In March 1941, Major Wetzel was assigned to duty as Assistant Chief of the Officer's Section, then as Executive Officer, Enlisted Section, Military Personnel Division, Office of the Chief of the Air Corps, Washington, District of Columbia. A year later Wetzel, now a Command Pilot and Colonel, became Chief of the division.

In early 1945, Brigadier General Wetzel became Chief of the Personnel Group, Personnel (G-1) Division, War Department General Staff, Washington, District of Columbia. It was during this period that he received the Legion of Merit for his outstanding services in the advice, selection and assignment of qualified key personnel, "thus contributing to the Allied success in the global conflict." Six months later, the general arrived at Harmon Field, Guam where he first served as Deputy Assistant Chief of Staff for Personnel (A-1), and then as Assistant Chief of Staff for Personnel (A-1), United States Army Strategic Air Forces in the Pacific. He then served as Chief of the Allied Liaison Section and Acting Deputy Chief of Staff of the Eighth Air Force, Okinawa. Wetzel was at dinner on Okinawa with Lieutenant General "Jimmy" Doolittle when news of Japan's surrender was announced. In these assignments, he added an oak leaf cluster to his Legion of Merit, again for outstanding service in contributing to the defeat of Japan. In addition, he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for his participation in the air offensive against Japan.

With the inactivation in December 1945 of this command, General Wetzel became Assistant Chief of Staff for Personnel (A-1), Pacific Air Command, United States Army (PACUSA), with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. When this command was re-designated the Far East Air Forces (FEAF), he continued in the same capacity through 1947.

In July l948, Wetzel became Chief of Staff of the Fifteenth Air Force, Colorado Springs, Colorado. A year later, he moved with the headquarters to March Air Force Base, California. In the spring of 1950, he became Deputy Commander, Fifteenth Air Force. Pinky Wetzel was promoted to major general in December 1950. Early the following year, General Wetzel returned to the Pentagon as the "number two" Air Force personnel chief with his assignment as Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, Headquarters United States Air Force, Washington, District of Columbia. He served in that assignment until 1954.

Major General Wetzel's next assignment, in May 1954, was as Commander of the Atlantic Division, Military Air Transport Service (MATS) - the equivalent of a numbered Air Force - then located at Westover AFB, MA. MATS, which later moved to McGuire Air Force Base, New Jersey, operated more than 200 medium and heavy transport aircraft carrying passengers and cargo hourly, around-the-clock to Europe, Great Britain, North Africa, South America and to the "top of the world", Thule Air Force Base, Greenland. Under Wetzel's command, from 1954-1957, a total of 5,000 round trips to the Arctic and 25,000 trips across the Atlantic were made, without a passenger fatality, while transporting thousands of personnel and tons of cargo. The MATS command had a peacetime mission of maintaining and exercising a fleet, in support of Strategic Air Command and other defense forces and government agencies, while training for a wartime mission. For his service in this assignment, he received a second oak leaf cluster to his Legion of Merit.

From 1957–1959, Wetzel served as Vice Commander of the Pacific Air Forces at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii. Here, Wetzel operated an major Air Force command whose tactical and defensive operations extended from Hawaii across the vast Pacific and as far West as Burma and included the Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces with bases in Japan, Philippines, Okinawa, Formosa and South Korea.

On September 1, 1959, Wetzel became Chief of Staff, United Nations Command, Korea, in Seoul, South Korea, with additional duty as Chief of Staff, United States Forces in Korea. He remained in this assignment until he retired from the Air Force in 1961.

During his 'great adventure' of a career, Pinky also managed to marry his academy sweetheart, Catharine and to have two sons who graduated from West Point: Emery Scott Jr., Class of 1954 and Tony, Class of 1956.

Honors

Lieut. General Emery Scott Wetzel has Honoree Record 3310 at MilitaryHallofHonor.com.