Clarence L . Tinker Major General Clarence Leonard Tinker ( 1887 – 1942 ) was an airman who lost his life during World War II while on a combat mission during the Japanese attack on Midway Island in the Pacific , June 7 , 1942 . Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City , Oklahoma is named in his honor . Tinker was an enrolled member of the Osage Nation and the highest ranking native - American officer in the U . S . Army . Early life . One - eighth Osage Indian , Clarence Tinker was born on November 21 , 1887 near Pawhuska , Oklahoma in the Osage Nation . His maternal grandmother was half - Osage , with both her parents being children of the marriage of Osages with Arcadian Frenchmen from Louisiana . Tinker , the eldest son of George E . Tinker and Sarah A . Schwagerte , received his elementary education in Catholic institutions at Hominy and Pawhuska , Oklahoma , and the Elgin , Kansas public school . While growing up , he worked in the print shop of the " Wah - Sha - She News " , Pawhuska ' s first newspaper , which his father founded and published . Beginning in 1900 Tinker attended the Haskell Institute , the famous Indian school in Lawrence , Kansas , but withdrew before graduating . In the fall of 1906 , Tinker enrolled at Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington , Missouri . Upon graduating from Wentworth in 1908 Tinker was commissioned a third lieutenant in the Philippine Constabulary . His service there ended in 1912 . Army career . He received his commission as a Lieutenant in the U . S . Army infantry in March 1912 . After infantry training , Tinker joined the Twenty - fifth Infantry Division at Fort George Wright in Spokane , Washington . In 1913 , his unit was transferred to Hawaii , where he met and married Madeline Doyle , a native of Halifax , Nova Scotia . During World War I , Tinker served in the Southwestern United States and California , and was promoted to Major . In 1919 , Tinker began flying lessons . One of his assignments after the War was with the ROTC at Riverside High School . When his father came to visit him at the school they began a conversation in Osage in public . This use of the language was one of the ways that Tinker publicly demonstrated his Osageness . Shortly thereafter , he transferred to the Army Air Service , and on July 1 , 1922 , he was assigned to flight duty . For a time Tinker was the air attache to the US embassy in London . He also was at the Army Command and Staff College in the same class as Dwight D . Eisenhower . In 1927 , he was named Commandant of the Air Service Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field , Texas . Tinker commanded various pursuit and bombardment units during the 1930s . He was steadily promoted , and on October 1 , 1940 , became a brigadier general . After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor , Tinker was named Commander of the Seventh Air Force in Hawaii to reorganize the air defenses of the islands . In January 1942 , he was promoted to Major General , the First American Indian in U . S . Army history to attain that rank . In June 1942 , the Japanese began their assault of Midway Island . In the midst of the Battle of Midway , on June 7 , General Tinker decided personally to lead a force of early model B - 24 s against the retreating Japanese naval forces . Near Midway Island his plane was seen to go out of control and plunge into the sea . General Tinker and eight other crewmen perished . His body was never recovered . Legacy . Clarence L . Tinker was the first American General killed in World War II . He received the Soldier ' s Medal in 1931 and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal . On October 14 , 1942 , the Oklahoma City Air Depot was named Tinker Field in his honor . It is now known as Tinker Air Force Base . There is also an elementary school named after him at MacDill Air Force Base .