Frank Maxwell Andrews Frank Maxwell Andrews ( February 3 , 1884 – May 3 , 1943 ) was a general officer in the United States Army and one of the founders of the United States Army Air Forces , which was later to become the United States Air Force . In leadership positions within the Army Air Corps , he succeeded in advancing progress toward a separate and independent Air Force where predecessors and allies such as Billy Mitchell had failed . Andrews was the first head of a centralized American air force and the first air officer to serve on the Army ' s general staff . In early 1943 , he took the place of Dwight D . Eisenhower as commander of all U . S . troops in the European Theater of Operations . He was killed in an airplane accident during an inspection tour in Iceland , in 1943 . He was the first of four lieutenant generals to die during the war , the others being Lesley J . McNair , Simon Bolivar Buckner , Jr . and Millard Harmon . Joint Base Andrews in Maryland ( formerly Andrews Air Force Base ) is named after him , as well as Andrews Barracks ( a kaserne in Berlin , Germany ) , General Andrews Airport ( demolished ) in Santo Domingo , Dominican Republic and Andrews Avenue in Pasay City , Philippines . Early life and World War I . Born in Nashville , Tennessee , Andrews was the grandson of a cavalry soldier who fought alongside Nathan Bedford Forrest and the great - great - nephew of two Tennessee governors , John C . Brown and Neill S . Brown ( " Nashville Banner " , 5 May 1943 ) . He graduated from the city ' s Montgomery Bell Academy in 1901 and entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in July 1902 . He graduated 42nd in his class and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 8th Cavalry on June 12 , 1906 , assigned to the Philippines from October 1906 to May 1907 , and then to Fort Huachuca , Arizona . In 1912 he was promoted to an available billet as a first lieutenant in the 2nd Cavalry , at Fort Bliss , Texas , and in 1916 received a promotion to captain in the regiment while at Plattsburgh Barracks , New York . The United States Army he joined was smaller than that of Bulgaria , but it gave the young second lieutenant ample opportunities to play polo , see the world ( serving as aide - de - camp to Gen . M . M . Macomb in the Hawaii between 1911 and 1913 ) , and observe the high and low politics of leadership . After marrying Josephine " Johnny " Allen , the high - spirited daughter of Maj . Gen . Henry Tureman Allen , in 1914 , Andrews gained entrée into elite inner circles of Washington society and within the military . A story related in the press many times during Andrews ' lifetime claimed that Gen . Allen forestalled aeronautical aspirations of his future son - in - law by declaring that no daughter of his would marry a flyer . Andrews ' service records , however , show that his commanding officer in the Second Cavalry vetoed his application for temporary aeronautical duty with the Army Signal Corps in February 1914 , a decision that held firm despite a plea from the Chief Signal Officer ' s for reconsideration by higher - ups . After the United States entered World War I , Andrews was promoted to temporary major on August 5 , 1917 , and assigned over the objections of his cavalry commander to the Aviation Section , U . S . Signal Corps as part of its wartime expansion . After staff duty in Washington , D . C . in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer between September 26 , 1917 , and April 25 , 1918 , Andrews went to Rockwell Field , California , for flying training . There , he earned a rating of Junior Military Aviator at the age of 34 . As with nearly all mid - career officers detailed to the Aviation Section , Andrews did not serve in France but as an administrator in the huge training establishment created to provide pilots . He commanded various training airfields in Texas and Florida , and served in the war plans division of the Army General Staff in Washington , D . C . Following the war , he replaced Brig . Gen . Billy Mitchell as Air Officer of the Army of Occupation in Germany , which his father - in - law , Gen . Allen , commanded . While in Germany , Andrews received his permanent establishment promotion to major , Cavalry , when the National Defense Act of 1920 took effect on July 1 , and then transferred in grade to the Air Service , which the Act had made a combat arm of the Army , on August 6 . Air Service and Air Corps duty . After returning to the United States in 1923 , Andrews again assumed command of Kelly Field , Texas , and he became the first commandant of the advanced flying school established there . In 1927 , he attended the Air Corps Tactical School at Langley Field , Virginia , and the following year he went to the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth , Kansas . Promoted to lieutenant colonel , Andrews served as the chief of the Army Air Corps ' Training and Operations Division in 1930 - 1931 before being replaced by the new Chief of the Air Corps , Maj . Gen . Benjamin D . Foulois . He then commanded the 1st Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field , Michigan . After graduation from the Army War College in 1933 , Andrews returned to the General Staff in 1934 . In March 1935 , Andrews was appointed by Army Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur to command the newly formed General Headquarters ( GHQ ) Air Force , which consolidated all the Army Air Corps ' tactical units under a single commander . The Army promoted Andrews to brigadier general ( temporary ) and to major general ( temporary ) less than a year later . A vocal proponent of the four - engine heavy bomber in general and the B - 17 Flying Fortress in particular , General Andrews advocated the purchase of the B - 17 in large numbers as the Army ' s standard bomber . MacArthur , however , was replaced as Chief of Staff by Gen . Malin Craig in October 1935 . Craig , who opposed any mission for the Air Corps except that of supporting ground forces , and the Army General Staff , actively opposing a movement for a separate air force , disagreed with Andrews that the B - 17 had proven its superiority as a bomber over all other types . Instead it cut back on planned purchases of B - 17s to procure smaller but cheaper ( and inferior ) twin - engine light and medium bombers such as the Douglas B - 18 . However , the war in Europe would soon prove the advocates of long range airpower correct . Later career , and World War II . Andrews was passed over for appointment as Chief of the Air Corps following the death of Maj . Gen . Oscar Westover in September 1938 , partly because of his aggressive support for strategic bombing . He became a trusted air adviser to George C . Marshall , newly appointed as deputy chief of staff of the Army in 1938 , but Andrews pushed too hard for the taste of more senior authorities . In January 1939 , after president Franklin D . Roosevelt had publicly called for a large expansion of the Air Corps , Andrews described the United States as a " sixth - rate airpower " at a speech to the National Aeronautic Association , antagonizing isolationist Secretary of War Harry Woodring , who was then assuring the public of U . S . air strength . At the end of Andrews ’ four - year term as Commanding General of GHQAF on March 1 , he was not reappointed , reverted to his permanent rank of colonel , and was reassigned as air officer for the Eighth Corps Area in San Antonio , the same exile to which Billy Mitchell had been sent . Possibly expected to retire , he instead was recalled to Washington just four months later by Marshall after President Roosevelt named Marshall to serve as Chief of Staff following Craig ' s retirement . His first senior staff selection , Marshall ' s choice of Andrews and its permanent promotion to brigadier general prompted furious opposition from Woodring and others , over which Marshall prevailed after threatening to resign his new post . As Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations ( G - 3 ) , he was in charge of readying the entire Army in the run - up to America ’ s inevitable involvement in the war . In 1940 , Andrews assumed control of the Air Corps ' Panama Canal Air Force , and in 1941 , he became commander of the Caribbean Defense Command , which had the critically important duty during World War II of defending the southern approaches to the United States , including the vital Panama Canal . In February 1942 , General Andrews was in Aruba and witnessed the German submarine attack on the island . That same year he went to North Africa , where he spent three months in command of all United States forces in the Middle East from a base in Cairo . At the Casablanca Conference in January 1943 , Lieut . Gen . Andrews was appointed commander of all United States forces in the European Theater of Operations , replacing Dwight D . Eisenhower . In his memoirs , Gen . Henry H . Arnold , commander of the Army Air Forces in World War II , expressed the belief that Andrews would have been given the command of the Allied invasion of Europe — the position that eventually went to Gen . Eisenhower . Gen . Marshall would say , late in life , that Andrews was the only general he had a chance to groom for a possible Supreme Allied Command later in the war . However , on May 3 , 1943 , during an inspection tour , Lieut . Gen . Andrews was killed in crash of B - 24D - 1 - CO Liberator , " 41 - 23728 " , of the 8th Air Force out of RAF Bovingdon , England , on Mt . Fagradalsfjall on the Reykjanes peninsula after an aborted attempt to land at the Royal Air Force station at Kaldadarnes , Iceland . Andrews and thirteen others died in the crash ; only the tail gunner , S / Sgt . George A . Eisel of Columbus , Ohio , survived . Others killed in the crash included Adna W . Leonard , presiding Methodist bishop of North America , who was on a pastoral tour ; Chaplains Col . Frank L . Miller ( Washington , D . C . ) and Maj . Robert H . Humphrey ( Lynchburg , Va . ) , accompanying Bishop Leonard ; Brig . Gen . Charles M . Barth ( hometown Walter , Minn . ) , Andrews ' chief of staff ; Col . Morrow Krum ( Lake Forest , Ill . ) , press officer for the ETO ; Lt . Col . Fred A . Chapman ( Grove Hill , Ala . ) and Maj . Theodore C . Totman ( Jamestown , N . Y . ) , senior aides to Andrews ; pilot Capt . Robert H . Shannon ( Washington , Iowa ) , of the 330th BS , 93rd BG ; Capt . Joseph T . Johnson ( Los Angeles ) ; navigator Capt . James E . Gott ( Berea , Ky . ) ; Master Sgt . Lloyd C . Wier ( McRae , Ark . ) ; Tech . Sgt . Kenneth A . Jeffers ( Oriskany Falls , N . Y . ) ; and Staff Sgt . Paul H . McQueen ( Endwell , N . Y . ) . Andrews was the highest - ranking Allied officer to die in the line of duty to that time in the war . At the time of his death , he was Commanding General , United States Forces , European Theatre of Operations . Camp Springs Army Air Field , Maryland , was renamed Andrews Field ( later Joint Base Andrews Naval Air Facility ) , for him on 7 February 1945 . Andrews is buried at Arlington National Cemetery . Legacy . Joint Base Andrews , located a few miles southeast of Washington , D . C . and the home base of Air Force One , is named in honor of Andrews . A Royal Air Force airfield called RAF Station Great Saling , in England was renamed after him , Andrews Field , in Essex England . It was the first airfield constructed in 1943 by army engineers in the United Kingdom during World War II . It was notable as having been the only renamed US airfield in the United Kingdom during World War II . It was used by the USAAF 96th Bombardment Group ( Heavy ) and the 322nd Bombardment Group ( Medium ) during the war , and also by several RAF squadrons before being closed in 1946 . Today , a small part of the former wartime airfield is still in use as a small private flying facility . Andrews Avenue , a road leading to the Philippines ' Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 was named after him .