US Air Force Brigadier General. A highly decorated combat fighter pilot, he is remembered as one of only six US Air Force fighter pilots to be recognized as an ace in two different wars. Nicknamed “Harry,” he was raised in Barnstead, New Hampshire and educated in a “one-room” school through the 8th grade, after which he attending Pittsfield High School where he was an avid athlete and graduated from there in 1935. He then attended the University of New Hampshire at Durham, New Hampshire and received a Bachelor of Arts pre-law degree in 1939. An ROTC graduate, he was given a reserve commission as a 2nd lieutenant of Infantry at graduation, but enlisted in the US Army Air Corps as a flying cadet. He did his primary training at Parks Air College near East Saint Louis, Illinois and his basic flying training at Randolph Field (now Randolph Air Force Base, a part of Joint Base San Antonio), Texas and then his advanced flying training at Kelly Field (now Kelly Air Reserve Base, a part of Joint Base san Antonio), Texas where he obtained his wings and commission in March 1940. His first assignment was as a pursuit pilot with the 94th Pursuit Squadron, 1st Pursuit Group, at Selfridge Field (now Selfridge Air National Guard Base), Michigan. In October 1941 he was transferred to the 41st Pursuit Squadron of the newly activated 31st Pursuit Group, then promoted to the rank of 1st lieutenant the following month. After the US entered World War II in December 1941, he and his unit were sent to the West Coast in January 1942, to form the core of a new 35th Group for immediate deployment to the Pacific. At the end of January 1942 he became the first commanding officer of the newly created 309th Fighter Squadron, 31st Fighter Group. Initially equipped with Curtiss P-40B Warhawk fighters, the 309th relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana to transition to the P-39 Airacobra fighter aircraft, and trained during the spring of 1942 for deployment overseas to England. Promoted to the rank of captain in April of that year, the following month, his unit staged to Grenier Field, New Hampshire, to train for long-distance over-water flights using drop tanks, for which the P-39 was found to be unsuitable. In June 1942 he was sent with his unit to High Ercall, England and immediately began training on British Spitfire V fighter aircraft and was credited with a “probable” kill of a German Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighter during Operation Jubilee, the Allied raid on Dieppe, France. In October 1942 he and his unit were sent by sea to Gibraltar to provide air support for Operation Torch as part of the 12th Air Force. He was then credited for shooting down four German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters as commander of the 309th Fighter Squadron and was officially recognized as an ace in May 1943. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel the previous February, he became second-in-command of the 31st Fighter Group and continued operations until wounded in action. He was officially credited with 162 combat missions and 5 planes destroyed. He was promoted to the rank of colonel US, and in November 1944, he became commander of the 413th Fighter Group at Bluethenthal Field, North Carolina. This group, consisting of Republic P-47N Thunderbolt fighters, trained for long-range escort operations for B-29 Superfortress bombers of the 20th Air Force. Deployed to the Pacific Theater of Operations in May 1945, it was engaged in several strafing missions from Saipan to the Caroline Islands along with dive-bombing and strafing attacks on factories, radar stations, airfields, small ships, and other targets in Japan and China. He remained in command of the 413th Fighter Group until October 1945. In 1946 he was granted a commission in the Regular Army and in the US Air Force in September 1947, when it became a separate service. From September 1947 through May 1950 he served as an instructor for the Air National Guard and was instrumental in the founding of the Air Guard in the states of Maine, Vermont, and his home state of New Hampshire. In June 1950 he became commander of the 33rd Fighter-Interceptor Group, at Otis Air Force Base (now Otis Air National Guard Base), Massachusetts, and moved up to command its parent 33rd Fighter-Interceptor Wing in April 1951. After the US entered the Korean War, he was deployed to Kimpo Air Base, South Korea in October 1951 and recorded his first MiG-15 kill on October 24, 1951, flying with the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing (FIW). The following month he became commander of the Wing. On May 20, 1952, while flying with the 335th Fighter-Interceptor Squadron, he recorded four additional MiG kills to become a jet ace. He commanded the 4th FIW until October 1952, and flew 114 missions. He returned to the US and had a succession of assignments with the Air Defense Command (ADC) at Ent Air Force Base, Colorado (now closed) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also served as Deputy of Operations for the Western Air Defense Area, as vice commander and commander of an ADC Air Division, and after promotion to the rank of brigadier general in May 1963, as vice commander of NORAD North Region at CFB North Bay, Ontario. He also saw duty in Headquarters USAF and with the Federal Aviation Agency in Washington DC. In 1966, prior to his retirement, he flew several combat missions in Southeast Asia. He retired from the US Air Force in April 1966, with 26 years of continuous military service. He accumulated over 650 hours of combat flight time on 307 sorties in three wars, with 10 aircraft officially credited shot down and another 6 unofficially attributed to him. Among his military and foreign decorations and awards include the Silver Star with 2 bronze oak leaf clusters, the Legion of Merit with 1 bronze oak leaf cluster, the Distinguished Flying Cross with 4 bronze oak leaf clusters, the Purple Heart, the Air Medal with 4 silver oak leaf clusters, a second Air Medal with two silver and one bronze oak leaf cluster (second ribbon required for accouterment spacing, a total of 34 separate awards), the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 3 bronze service stars, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with 4 bronze campaign stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Army of Occupation Medal, the Korean Service Medal with 4 bronze service stars, the United Nations Service Medal for Korea, and the French Croix de Guerre with bronze palm. He was a rated command pilot. After his military retirement, he ran as the Republican candidate for the US Senate seat from New Hampshire held by Democrat Thomas J. McIntyre but was defeated in the general election. He was the founder of the New England Aeronautical Institute which later merged with Daniel Webster Junior College to become Daniel Webster College in Nashua, New Hampshire, and served as its first president. He retired to Pittsfield, New Hampshire and died there at the age of 65. In July 2004, a memorial in his honor was dedicated in Pittsfield by the Pittsfield Historical Society.

Bio by: William Bjornstad