Paul Wurtsmith Paul Bernard Wurtsmith ( 9 August 1906 – 13 September 1946 ) was a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II . Enlisting in the United States Army Air Corps as a flying cadet in 1927 , Wurtsmith was commissioned in 1928 . Over the next 13 years , he served in instructional and command positions . He took over command of the 49th Pursuit Group in December 1941 and between March 1942 and January 1943 , his fighters downed 78 enemy aircraft in the defense of Darwin in northern Australia , against Japanese air attacks . In 1943 he assumed command of the V Fighter Command , part of Major General George Kenney ' s Fifth Air Force . In 1945 , he commanded the Thirteenth Air Force in the Southern Philippines and Borneo campaigns . After the war Wurtsmith served with the Strategic Air Command . Wurtsmith was killed when his B - 25 Mitchell crashed into a mountain near Asheville , North Carolina , on 13 September 1946 . In February 1953 , the United States Air Force named Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda Township , Michigan , in his honor . Early life . Paul Bernard Wurtsmith was born in Detroit , Michigan , on 9 August 1906 , the eldest of three sons of Fred Bernard Wurtsmith , a railroad engineer on the Pere Marquette Railroad , and his wife Ella . Paul was educated at Holy Redeemer Grammar School and Cass Technical High School in Detroit . In his teenage years he earned some money working as a copy boy at " The Detroit News " . In his spare time he worked on a Ford Model - T hot rod . He attended the University of Detroit , where he earned a degree in aeronautical engineering . He enlisted in the Army Air Corps as a flying cadet on 4 August 1927 . On earning his wings through the successful completion of flight training at Kelly Field , San Antonio , Texas , he was directly commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Reserve on 23 June 1928 . On 2 February 1929 , he received a regular commission in the US Army Air Corps . He married Irene Gillespie . The couple had no children . Wurtsmith joined the 94th Pursuit Squadron , the famed World War I " Hat in the Ring " Squadron , at Selfridge Field , Michigan . Over the next 13 years , he served in numerous instructional and command positions . He won the Mitchell Trophy Air Race in 1930 . On 1 October 1934 , he was promoted to first lieutenant and was temporary captain from 7 August 1935 to 16 June 1936 before being promoted substantively on 2 February 1939 . He graduated from the Air Corps Tactical School in 1939 . World War II . Defense of Australia . Wurtsmith commanded the 17th Pursuit Squadron at Selfridge Field from September 1939 to July 1940 , then the 41st Pursuit Squadron until January 1941 . Still at Selfridge Field , he served with the 50th Pursuit Group until December 1941 , when he assumed command of the 49th Pursuit Group at Key Field , Mississippi , shortly after the United States entered the war following the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor . The 49th Pursuit Group was soon on its way to fight the Japanese in the South West Pacific . Arriving in Australia in February 1942 , the 49th Pursuit Group moved to the Darwin area in March and April 1942 . By this time , Darwin had been bombed a number of times . The 49th Pursuit Group became its principal defense . Conditions in the area were still primitive , and spare parts and equipment were scarce . Lacking adequate logistical support , the Americans were heavily dependent on their Australian allies . Morale was low , but the sight of Wurtsmith ' s aircraft patrolling the skies provided an important boost . Between December 1941 and March 1942 , over 300 P - 40 Kittyhawk s , 100 P - 400 and 90 P - 39 Airacobra s had been sent to Australia ; of these , around 125 had been lost to enemy action in the Dutch East Indies campaign , 75 had been transferred to the RAAF , 74 were under or awaiting repair and perhaps another 100 had yet to be completely assembled . On 18 March , 33 P - 39s , 92 P - 40s and 52 P - 400s were on hand . While there were three USAAF pursuit groups in Australia , the 8th , 35th and 49th , Wurtsmith ' s was the only one considered combat ready . Of the 102 pilots in his group , only Wurtsmith , with 4 , 800 hours of pursuit time , and his executive officer , Major Donald R . Hutchinson , with 2 , 600 hours , were veteran pilots . Five others had more than 600 hours and nine had about 15 hours . The remaining 89 pilots had no pursuit time at all . The P - 40s were better armored and faster in level flight than the Japanese fighters they were up against , mostly Mitsubishi A6M Zero es , and could outdive them . On the other hand , the Japanese fighters had greater range , could outclimb the P - 40 , and were far more maneuverable . For an American P - 40 pilot , risking a dogfight with a Japanese fighter was practically suicidal . Wurtsmith attempted to develop tactics that would exploit the strengths of the P - 40 and minimize its weaknesses . The two - plane element was fixed as the chief unit of combat , and individual dogfighting was strictly prohibited . The P - 40s would attempt to dive into a Japanese formation , attack , and then continue diving at a speed the Japanese fighters could not match . Above all , Wurtsmith attempted to make sure that he had enough P - 40s in commission to outnumber the Japanese . The efforts of the ground crews and service troops made this possible . By May 1942 , he had lost seven P - 40s and three pilots while claiming the destruction of 38 Japanese aircraft . The heaviest Japanese attack had been by nine fighters and 24 bombers , which Wurtsmith had met with 50 P - 40s ; the P - 40 pilots claimed 11 Japanese aircraft shot down . May was the first month that passed without a raid since January but the Japanese returned on four consecutive days in June , with three of these raids consisting of 18 to 20 fighters and 27 bombers . That month nine P - 40s and 13 Japanese aircraft were lost . Wurtsmith was promoted to colonel on 6 July 1942 . Between March 1942 and January 1943 , his fighters claimed to have downed 78 enemy aircraft . New Guinea . In August 1942 , Major General George Kenney assumed command of the Allied Air Forces in the South West Pacific Area , becoming the senior Allied air officer under the theater commander , General Douglas MacArthur . Kenney split the Allied Air Forces into Australian and American components , with the American part becoming the re - formed Fifth Air Force in September 1942 . Kenney concurrently commanded the Fifth Air Force , with Brigadier General Ennis Whitehead as his deputy . The major commands of the Fifth Air Force were the V Service Command under Major General Rush B . Lincoln , V Bomber Command under Brigadier General Kenneth Walker , and the V Fighter Command . Activated at Fort George Wright in April 1942 as V Interceptor Command , it was redesignated V Fighter Command in August . Wurtsmith assumed command on 11 November , with his headquarters at Port Moresby . Kenney told him that if he " made good " , he would be promoted to brigadier general . If not , he would be sent home on a slow boat . By early 1943 , Kenney was convinced that Wurtsmith had " made good " in the Papuan Campaign , and he took the papers recommending Wurtsmith ' s promotion to MacArthur , who promised to approve it and sent it in to Washington , DC . One of MacArthur ' s staff quipped that he hoped Wurtsmith was over 21 . Wurtsmith was actually 36 ; but MacArthur , who had been promoted to the rank of brigadier general at age 37 , icily replied , " We promote them out here for efficiency , not age . " Wurtsmith was duly promoted on 8 February 1943 . He also became one of a handful of American officers to be decorated by the Australian government , being awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire for " excellence of training and direction of fighter operations in New Guinea " . The award was eventually presented by General Sir Thomas Blamey on Leyte in March 1945 . The first long - range American fighter was the twin - engined P - 38 Lightning but none reached the South West Pacific Area until October 1942 and , beset with a host of mechanical difficulties , it was not until December 1942 that they flew their first major combat mission over New Guinea . Deliveries were suspended in January 1943 owing to the requirements of the North African Campaign , forcing Kenney to accept the P - 47 Thunderbolt , the first of which arrived in Australia in July 1943 . Early model P - 47s had less range than P - 40 Kittyhawks until fuel tanks could be manufactured for them in Australia . These enabled the 348th Fighter Group to become operational in August 1943 . While the tanks were very successful on the P - 38s and P - 40s , overloading the P - 47s caused numerous crashes , and the pilots were reluctant to fly with more than of fuel . In 1945 , the P - 47s were replaced by P - 51 Mustang s . By September 1943 , Wurtsmith ' s five fighter groups had 598 aircraft but this included 70 P - 39s , 30 P - 400s and 118 P - 40s , half of which were in the depots . The technical representative of Bell Aircraft reported that the P - 39s and P - 40s averaged 300 combat hours . That of Curtiss - Wright similarly reported that the P - 40s had from 300 to 500 combat hours , which was equivalent to about 2 , 000 normal hours . General Kenney wrote to General Henry H . Arnold that " With the possible exception of Chennault , I do not believe that anyone else is flying stuff as old and worn out as these youngsters out here . " In New Guinea , the main role of the fighters was escort — something not foreseen before the war . Early losses of bombers made fighter protection the rule rather than the exception , and if fighter cover was not available , the bombers flew by night . During the last half of 1943 , V Fighter Command flew 6 , 607 sorties in support of bombers and 10 , 215 to protect transports , out of 24 , 397 sorties for the period in total . These missions often depended upon securing forward fighter fields , particularly for long missions . Wurtsmith made what he claimed was the " shortest landing ever made in a P - 40 " at Marilinan in order to see if it could serve as a forward fighter strip . He proved that it could , although a better site was subsequently located at nearby Tsili Tsili . This base allowed Wurtsmith ' s fighters to support the bombing of Wewak and the landing at Nadzab . The range of the fighters was increased by the addition of external 200 - gallon fuel tanks . Then , in July 1944 , Charles Lindbergh , who was visiting the South West Pacific area as civilian observer , taught Wurtsmith ' s pilots how to obtain additional range by economical operation of their engines . The new technique increased the combat radius of the P - 38s to , a gain of some 30 percent . Combining three external droppable tanks with new techniques increased the range of the P - 40s to . On 30 January 1945 , Wurtsmith replaced Major General St . Clair Streett as commander of the Thirteenth Air Force . He was promoted to the rank of major general on 19 March 1945 . The Thirteenth Air Force was tasked with the support of Lieutenant General Robert L . Eichelberger ' s Eighth United States Army in the Victor series of operations to clear the Southern Philippines that included the Invasion of Palawan , Battle of the Visayas , and the Battle of Mindanao . Operating under Air Vice Marshal William Bostock ' s RAAF Command , the Thirteenth Air Force also supported Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead ' s Australian I Corps in the Oboe series of operations against Japanese forces in Borneo . Post - war years . Wurtsmith relinquished command of the Thirteenth Air Force in July 1946 and returned to the United States , where he was assigned to the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command ( SAC ) at Washington , DC ' s Bolling Field . While perhaps an unusual posting for a fighter expert , SAC was then commanded by Kenney . Wurtsmith attended the 1946 Operation Crossroads nuclear weapon s tests on Bikini Atoll as an observer , and in September 1946 , he was appointed commander of the Eighth Air Force , one of SAC ' s three numbered air forces . On 12 September 1946 , he took off from MacDill Field , Florida , in a B - 25 Mitchell . He first flew to Bolling Field , where he had some business , then on to Selfridge Field . He paid a visit to his family , whom he had not seen for three years , including his mother Ella , whose 77th birthday was on 14 September . On 13 September , with Wurtsmith at the controls , the Mitchell , " 44 - 30227 " , set out for MacDill Field in bad weather , flying at — below the safe altitude for the area . At around 11 : 20 all on board were killed when the aircraft crashed into Cold Mountain , about southwest of Asheville , North Carolina . The official report listed the cause of the crash as " miscalculation of altitude " . Wurtsmith ' s remains were recovered from Cold Mountain and were interred in Arlington National Cemetery on 17 September 1946 . In February 1953 , the United States Air Force named Wurtsmith Air Force Base in Oscoda , Michigan , in his honor . Special guests at the dedication ceremony included his mother Ella , his widow Irene , his nephews Paul D . Wurtsmith and Fred Wurtsmith , and George Kenney . General Thomas D . White told the crowd that the base was being named after a man who was " probably the best fighter pilot and fighter tactician in all of World War II " . In 1954 , Ella Wurtsmith was named Michigan Mother of the Year . Among the letters recommending her for the honor was one from General MacArthur .