MAJOR GENERAL AUBREY L. JENNINGS

Aubrey L. Jennings was born in Bartlett, Texas, and earned his medical degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1929. He completed his internship at City County Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. He was on the staff of the Abilene State Hospital in Texas when he entered the Army Medical Corps in October 1933. Assignments followed at Fort Clark, Texas, and Carlisle Barracks, Pa.

He then became a resident in ophthalmology at Tripler Army Hospital in Hawaii in 1940, and Walter Reed Hospital, Washington, D.C., in 1941. He graduated from the School of Aviation Medicine as a chief flight surgeon at Randolph Field, Texas, before going to England in WWII as surgeon for the 9th Bomber Command.

After the war, General Jennings was Chief of the Department of Ophthalmology at the School of Aviation Medicine at Randolph Field. During the Korean conflict, he was stationed in Japan as surgeon for the Far East Materiel Command. He then served for five years as surgeon of the Headquarters Command at Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, D.C., and Andrews Air Force Base in nearby Maryland. In 1959 he was the first commander of the hospital at Andrews.

At the time of his retirement he was presented with the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster for outstanding service as Director of Professional Services in the Office of the Surgeon General of the Air Force from 1959 until the end of October 1963. The citation read, in part, "His leadership resulted in significant contributions to the development of a dynamic and effective Air Force Medical Service. General Jennings provided exceptional guidance in the development of programs to establish liaison with medical representatives of friendly foreign nations which have aided in the furtherance of U.S. national policies."

Source: Washington Post obituary (Aug. 7, 1975)