caption serviceyears laterwork branch commands death_date birth_place allegiance awards battles birth_date alt rank image article_title name
air commodore joe hewitt , 1942 1915 -- 56 businessman author royal australian navy royal australian air force no. 104 squadron raf -lrb- 1936 -- 38 -rrb- no. 9 101 operational group -lrb- 1943 -rrb- flight -lrb- 1931 -- 33 -rrb- no. 1 november 1985 tylden , victoria australia commander of the order of the british empire world war ii 13 april 1901 head-and-shoulders wearing dark jacket and tie portrait of dark-haired man with small moustache , air vice marshal 012247hewitt1942.jpg joe hewitt -lrb- raaf officer -rrb-
 joseph eric -lrb- joe -rrb- hewitt
joe hewitt -lrb- raaf officer -rrb-

air vice marshal joseph eric -lrb- joe -rrb- hewitt , cbe -lrb- 13 april 1901 -- 1 november 1985 -rrb- was a senior commander in the royal australian air force -lrb- raaf -rrb- .
a royal australian navy officer who transferred permanently to the air force in 1928 , he commanded no. 101 -lrb- fleet cooperation -rrb- flight in the early 1930s , and no. 104 -lrb- bomber -rrb- squadron raf on exchange in britain shortly before world war ii .
appointed the raaf 's assistant chief of the air staff in 1941 , hewitt was posted the following year to allied air forces headquarters , south west pacific area , as director of intelligence .
in 1943 , he took command of no. 9 operational group , the raaf 's main mobile strike force , but was controversially sacked by the chief of the air staff , air vice marshal george jones , less than a year later over alleged morale and disciplinary issues .
described as a `` small , dapper man '' who was `` outspoken , even ` cocky ' '' , hewitt overcame the setback to his career during the war and made his most significant contributions afterwards , as air member for personnel from 1945 to 1948 .
directly responsible for the demobilisation of thousands of wartime staff and the consolidation of what was then the world 's fourth largest air force into a much smaller peacetime service , he also modernised education and training within the raaf .
hewitt was appointed a commander of the order of the british empire in 1951 , the same year he became air member for supply and equipment .
retiring from the military in 1956 , he went into business and later managed his own publishing house .
he wrote two books including `` adversity in success '' , a first-hand account of the south west pacific air war , before his death in 1985 at the age of 84 .
