MAJOR GENERAL FREDERICK W. EVANS

Frederick William Evans was born at Lawrence, Mass., in 1898. After attending Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y., he enlisted as a flying cadet in October 1917 and entered the Army Balloon School at Fort Omaha, Neb. Upon completing his training in January 1918, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the aviation section of the Signal Officers Reserve Corps and assigned to the 24th Balloon Company at Fort Monroe, Va. In September 1918 he was promoted to temporary first lieutenant and a year later was honorably discharged.

He was appointed as a second lieutenant of Air Service in the Regular Army July 1, 1920 and that same date was promoted to first lieutenant.

He then returned to Fort Monroe, Va., and in January 1921 was transferred to the Army Balloon School at Fort Eustis, Va. The following November he went to the Airship School at Langley Field, Va., and later entered the Chemical Warfare School at Edgewood Arsenal, Md. After graduating in April 1923, he returned to Langley Field and the following March entered the Air Corps Primary Flying School at Brooks Field, Texas. In September 1924 he transferred to the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas, from which he graduated in March 1925.

He then went to France Field, in the Panama Canal Zone, for service with the 25th Bombardment Squadron.

He returned to the United States in April 1928, to become personnel adjutant of the First Observation Squadron at Mitchel Field, N.Y. In September 1929, he was named commanding officer of the 99th Observation Squadron at that station and in August 1933, entered the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Ala. Following graduation a year later, he served as an instructor at the school until August 1937, when he entered the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. Upon completing the course the following June, he was assigned to the Operations And Training Division of the General Headquarters Air Force at Langley Field Va.

He later transferred to the Air Force Combat Command at Langley Field and in March 1942, was detailed to the General Staff Corps and assigned to the Organization and Training Division of the War Department General Staff. The following December he transferred to Army Air Force headquarters for assignment as director of war organization and movement.

In October 1943, he went to Stout Field, Ind., where he became commanding general of the First Troop Carrier Command. This organization trained all the U.S. troop carrier and combat cargo groups which later transported Allied parachute and glider units to battle in Italy, France, New Guinea, the Philippines and Burma.

In August 1944, he was ordered to the China-Burma-India theater, where he assumed command of the Combat Cargo Task Force, a unit of the Eastern Air Command. This force supported the British 14th Army and 15th Corps in their operations in Burma which culminated in the capture of Rangoon in May 1945, and demonstrated the feasibility of air supply for large forces in the absence of land lines of communication.

He jointed the staff of Army Air Force headquarters in China after it was established in July 1945, with the 14th and 10th Air Forces, as its major combat units, and the following February assumed command of the Army Air Forces in that theater.

In June 1946, he returned to the United States to assume command of the Second Air Force at Offutt Field, Neb. In June 1947, he became a patient at the hospital at Fort Crook, Neb.

General Evans has been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, Legion of Merit and Distinguished Flying Cross. His foreign decorations include the British C.B.E., and the Chinese Order of Cloud Banner and Air Force Medal.

He is rated a command pilot, balloon pilot, combat observer, balloon observer and technical observer.

(Up to date as of March 3, 1948)