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    HomeAbout UsBiographiesDisplay      Effective Dates of Promotion
                
                Major General                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    October 24, 1956Engage OnFacebook PostsYour browser is incompatible with this widget.
                        
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        Major General DAVID HODGE BAKERMaj. Gen. David Hodge Baker was born in Paterson, N.J., in 1907. After graduating from high school at Richmond Hill, N.Y., in 1926, he entered the U.S. Military Academy from which he graduated and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Coast Artillery Corps June 12, 1930. The following September he was detailed to the Air Corps and assigned to flying school.
Upon graduation from the Air Corps Primary and Advanced Flying Schools in March 1932, General Baker was rated a pilot and transferred to the Air Corps.
His first assignment was at Mitchel Field, N.Y., where he served until April 1935, when he was transferred to the Panama Canal Department. In 1937, he was assigned at Bolling Field, D.C., where he served with the 14th Air Base Squadron.
In 1939, General Baker entered the Harvard Graduate School of Business, where he studied industrial management for two years. He then became chief of the Accounting Branch at Wright Field, Ohio. He went to England in August 1942, as executive of the Plans Section of the Eighth Air Force Service Command, and the following December was named chief of the Plans Division of that command. In October 1943, he was appointed deputy commander of the Ninth Air Force Service Command in that theater. From March to May 1946, he was commander after which he resumed his position as deputy commander.
General Baker, in September 1946, was assigned as operations and training staff officer at the National War College. He was appointed in June 1948, a member of the Joint Logistics Plans Group in the Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In March 1950, he assumed command of the 5001st Composite Wing at Ladd Air Force Base, Alaska.
In October 1951, General Baker became director of command support at Air Materiel Command headquarters, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. In March 1952, he was named comptroller of Air Materiel Command and in August 1953, he became director, Procurement and Production, at that headquarters.
General Baker retired from active military service on July 31, 1957.
General Baker has been awarded the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster and the Bronze Star Medal. His foreign decorations include the French Croix de Guerre with Palm and the Legion of Honor, the Luxembourg Croix de Guerre, the Belgium Order of Leopold with Palm and Croix de Guerre with Palm, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, and the Polish Order of Polonia Restituta. He is rated a command pilot, combat observer and aircraft observer.**EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROMOTION**
He was promoted to first lieutenant (temporary) May 2, 1935; to first lieutenant (permanent) Aug. 1, 1935; to captain (permanent) June 12,1940; to major (temporary) July 15, 1941; to lieutenant colonel (temporary) Jan. 5, 1942; to colonel (temporary) March 1, 1942; to major (permanent) June 12, 1947; to colonel (permanent) April 2, 1948; to brigadier general {temporary) Aug. 11, 1950; to major general (temporary) Sept. 25, 1952; to brigadier general (permanent) April 7, 1954; to major general (permanent) Oct. 24, 1956.
(Up to date as of July 1957)
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