Stuart Phillips Wright was born in Dallas, Texas, in l903. He graduated from Terrill High School there in 1921, and attended Dartmouth College and Texas University.
Appointed a flying cadet in June 1927, General Wright completed primary and advanced flying schools a year later and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Reserve. Receiving his Regular commission as a second lieutenant of Air Corps Jan. 6, 1930, he was assigned to the First Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field, Mich., and in March 1933 was transferred to the 18th Pursuit Group at Wheeler Field, Hawaii.
Ordered to Mitchel Field, N.Y., in July 1936, General Wright was assigned to the 97th Observation Squadron, becoming operations officer of a Ninth Bomb Group squadron in April 1939, and assuming command of the First Bomb Squadron, Ninth Bomb Group in July 1940. That November he took the First Bomb Squadron to Rio Hato Air Base in the Republic Panama, and in March 1941 assumed command of the Ninth Bomb Group in Trinidad. A year later the general became operations officer of the Sixth Bomb Command at Albrook Field in the Panama Canal Zone. Moving to Army Air Force headquarters, Washington, D.C., in August 1942, he became operations liaison officer in the Directorate of Communications, and in October 1943 was appointed chief of a Special Project Section studies there.
The following April General Wright assumed command of the 497th Bomb Group at Clovis Field, N.M., taking it to Saipan in the Marianas Islands three months later. In February l945 he joined the 73rd Bomb Wing, also in the Marianas, and that April was appointed communications officer of the 20th Air Force in the South Pacific. Three months later he was transferred to the Air Communications Office at Army Air Force headquarters as chief of the Equipment Programming Section, becoming deputy air communications officer there in April 1946. Entering the National War College that September, he graduated the following June.
Joining the Strategic Air Command, General Wright was an electronics officer at SAC headquarters, Andrews Air Force Base, Md., becoming chief of the Electronics Section, SAC, there in August 1948; and retaining that position when SAC headquarters moved to Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., three months later. In September 1950 he was appointed deputy commanding general of the Air Proving Ground Command at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Transferred to the Far East Air Forces in March 1953, he was designated deputy commander of the Fifth Air Force (Rear) in Korea.
Returning to the United States in May 1954, General Wright assumed command of the Rome Air Development Center, Air Research and development command, at Griffis Air Force Base, N.Y.
His decorations include the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal, and Air Medal. He is rated a command pilot, combat observer and aircraft observer.
(Up to date as of July 1957)