Nickname(s) "Andy" Role Balloonist Name Orvil Anderson | Rank Major General Years of service 1917–1950 Awards Hubbard Medal | |
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Born May 2, 1895
Springville, Utah ( 1895-05-02 ) Allegiance United States of America Died August 22, 1965, Montgomery, Alabama, United States Place of burial Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, United States Service/branch Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps | ||
Major General Orvil Arson Anderson (May 2, 1895 - August 24, 1965) was a pioneer balloonist. In 1935 he and Albert William Stevens won the Mackay Trophy when they set a record of 72,395 feet in their balloon Explorer II.
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Early career
Born Orvil Orson Anderson, on May 2, 1895 in Springville, Utah. An Army clerical error changed it to Orvil Arson Anderson when he joined the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in August 1917.
On July 28, 1934 he participated in the Explorer I Stratospheric Balloon Fight which reached an altitude of 60,613 feet before he had to bail out due to safety concerns.
In 1935 he and Albert William Stevens won the Mackay Trophy, the Harmon Trophy and the National Geographic Society Hubbard Medal when they set a record of 72,395 feet in their balloon Explorer II.
Anderson received the Distinguished Flying Cross for each of the two Explorer flights.
World War II
In World War II he was in the Air War Plans Division and was involved in planning the Combined Bomber Offensive against Germany.
Korean War
In 1950 Anderson was the Commandant of the USAF's Air War College. He was one of many Americans frustrated by the limitations placed upon American conduct of the Korean War. It was no secret that the North Koreans were acting on behalf of their sponsor, the Soviet Union, but as the Truman administration did not want the war to expand into a global conflict, fighting was limited to the Korean peninsula. When, in September, Anderson told a newspaper interviewer, “Give me the order to do it and I can break up Russia’s five A-bomb nests in a week! And when I went up to Christ, I think I could explain to him why I wanted to do it—now—before it is too late. I think I could explain to him that had saved civilization,” the president suspended him. He retired shortly thereafter.
General Anderson died on August 22, 1965 of lung cancer at Maxwell Air Force Base, Montgomery, Alabama.