Department of the United States Air Force LogoBiography
                  United States Air ForceThis is the official portrait of retired Maj. Gen. Elmer E. Adler.
            Major General ELMER EDWARD ADLERMaj. Gen. Elmer Edward Adler was a born in Buffalo, N.Y., in 1892. He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., from March 3, 1910 to Feb. 15, 1913. Commissioned a second lieutenant of Infantry in the New York National Guard Dec. 6, 1915, he was promoted to first lieutenant April 22, 1916, serving with the 65th Infantry and 3rd Field Artillery. He became a captain in the New York National Guard July 25, 1916, and resigned August 23, 1916.
Accepting a temporary commission in the Air Service as a first lieutenant July 22, 1918, he was promoted to captain Sept. 24, 1918, and commissioned a captain in the Air Service, Regular Army, July 1, 1920. He served at Buffalo, N.Y., and then on border patrol duty until the completion of the Mexican Border Crisis, and through the first period of the first World War. Going to Washington, D.C., in July 1918, a short time later he was assigned to Kelly Field, Texas as executive officer of the Air Service Mechanics School.
Assigned to the Office of the Chief of Air Service in Washington, D.C., in January 1921, General Adler became chief of the Property Maintenance and Cost, Compilation Section for the Office of the Chief of the Air Service, with station in Fairfield, Ohio, in August 1921, and in July 1923 was named chief of the Field Service Section of the Air Corps. A year later he was appointed executive officer of the air races at Fairfield, Ohio, and a month later entered the Air Service Engineer School at McCook Field, Ohio from which he graduated in November 1925. During this period he served as a member of The Round the World Flight Committee.
Transferred to the Philippine Islands late in 1925, General Adler was assigned to Camp Nichols, assuming command of the Philippine Air Depot there in February 1926. He became commanding officer of the Kindley Field, Fort Mills, Philippine Islands, in March 1927, remaining in the Philippines until May 1928 as special assistant to the military attack in Japan, surveying the Japanese Army Air Corps.
Reassigned to Washington D.C., General Adler became a member of the Materiel Liaison Section in the Office of the Chief of Air Corps. He was named chief of the Procurement and Transportation Branch in November 1928, and transferred to the Plans Division there in July 1930. A year later he entered the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Ala., graduated in June 1932; graduated from the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., in June 1934; and graduated from the Army War College at Washington D.C. in June 1935.
General Adler was assigned to Hamilton Field, Calif., in August 1938, as group executive officer. He assumed command of the Seventh Bomb Group the following November. In January 1939 he enrolled in the Naval Operations Course at the Air Corps Tactical School Maxwell Field, Ala., and after completion proceeded to Hamilton Field as executive officer in base headquarters. He assumed command of the Ninth Bomb Squadron in September 1939. Transferred to Fort Douglas, Utah, in February 1941, he served with 20th Bomb Wing headquarters, becoming group commander of the 39th Bomb Group (Heavy) in March 1941. That May he became chief of staff of the Provisional Air Corps Maintenance Command at Patterson Field, Ohio, which was later designated the Air Service Command.
Going to the North African Mission in November 1941, General Adler was appointed chief of the Air Section and chief representative of the commanding general, U.S. Army Air Forces in Africa, Middle East, and India. Upon organization of the Tenth Air Force in China-Burma-India, he was transferred there as commanding general of the Air Service Command, and in June 1942 went to the Middle East as commanding general of the Air Service Command, Ninth Air Force. He also was assigned as chief of the American Section of an Anglo-American Air Mission which spent two months in Russia.
Recalled to the United States in January 1943, General Adler was appointed chief of the Personnel and Training Division, Headquarters, Air Service Command, at Patterson Field, Ohio. In October 1944 he became chief of management control, Army Transport Command, at Wright Field, Ohio.
He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and rated a command pilot, combat observer and technical observer.**EFFECTIVE DATES OF PROMOTION**
He was promoted to major (temporary) June 16, 1936; to major (permanent) July 1, 1940; to lieutenant colonel (temporary) March 21, 1941; to lieutenant colonel (permanent) Nov. 16, 1942; to brigadier general (temporary) Nov. 1, 1941 to major general (temporary) Jan. 1, 1945.
(Up to date as of March 31, 1946)Department of the Air Force Logo