Nathan Farragut Twining Nathan Farragut Twining , ( ; October 11 , 1897 – March 29 , 1982 ) was a United States Air Force General , born in Monroe , Wisconsin . He was Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force from 1953 until 1957 . As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1957 to 1960 he was the first member of the Air Force to serve in that role . Military career . Nathan Twining came from a military background ; his forebears had served in the United States Army and Navy since the French and Indian War . His mother was Frances Staver Twining , author of " Bird - Watching in the West " . In 1913 , Twining moved with his family to Oswego , Oregon , serving in the Oregon National Guard from 1915 to 1917 . In 1917 , he received an appointment to West Point . Because the program was shortened so as to produce more officers for combat , he spent only two years at the academy and graduated just a few days too late for service in World War I . After graduating in 1918 and serving in the infantry for three years arriving in Europe in July 1919 , he transferred to the Air Service . Over the next 15 years he flew fighter aircraft in Texas , Louisiana , and Hawaii , while also attending the Air Corps Tactical School and the Command and General Staff College . When World War II broke out in Europe he was assigned to the operations division on the Air Staff ; then in 1942 he was sent to the South Pacific where he became chief of staff of the Allied air forces in that area . In January 1943 , he was promoted to Major General and assumed command of the Thirteenth Air Force , and that same November he traveled across the world to take over the Fifteenth Air Force from Jimmy Doolittle . On 1 February 1943 , the U . S . Navy rescued Brig . Gen . Twining , the 13th Air Force Commander , and 14 others near New Hebrides Islands . They ditched their plane on the way from Guadalcanal to Espiritu Santo and spent six days in life rafts . When Germany surrendered , Arnold sent Twining back to the Pacific to command the B - 29 s of the Twentieth Air Force in the last push against Japan , but he was there only a short time when the atomic strikes ended the war . On 20 October 1945 , Twining led three B - 29s in developing a new route from Guam to Washington via India and Germany . They completed the 13 , 167 - mile - trip in 59 hours , 30 minutes . He returned to the States where he was named commander of the Air Materiel Command , and in 1947 he took over Alaskan Air Command . After three years there he was set to retire as a Lieutenant General , but when Muir Fairchild , the vice chief of staff , died unexpectedly of a heart attack , Twining was elevated to full General and named his successor . In 1947 , Twining was asked to study UFO reports ; he recommended that a formal study of the phenomenon take place ; Project Sign was the result . When Hoyt Vandenberg retired in mid - 1953 , Twining was selected as chief ; during his tenure , massive retaliation based on airpower became the national strategy . In 1957 , President Eisenhower appointed Twining Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff . General Twining died on March 29 , 1982 at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Awards and decorations . General Twining held the ratings of Command Pilot and Aircraft Observer . In addition , General Twining was awarded numerous personal decorations from the U . S . military and foreign countries .