Name Paul Airey Awards See below | ||
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Born December 13, 1923Quincy, Massachusetts ( 1923-12-13 ) Battles/wars World War IIKorean War Place of burial Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia, United States | ||
Years of service 1940 – 1970 (30 years) Allegiance United States of America | ||
Paul Wesley Airey (December 13, 1923 – March 11, 2009) was adviser to Secretary of the Air Force Richard Campbell and Air Force Chief of Staff General John P. McConnell. He was the first Chief Master Sergeant appointed to this ultimate noncommissioned officer position and was selected from among 21 major command (MAJCOM) nominees to become the first Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. He was formally installed by Gen McConnell on 3 April 1967.
Military career
The Chief was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He entered military service in 1940 after two years of high school in Quincy, Massachusetts. In 1948 he obtained his high school equivalency certificate, and later completed 62 semester hours of study at McKendree College, Lebanon, Illinois. His military schooling included courses in communication mechanics and personnel management. He is a graduate of the Air Defense Command Noncommissioned Officer Academy. The academy was renamed the Paul W. Airey NCO Academy on December 13, 2006, in his honor.
Chief Airey joined the Army Air Forces in 1940. During World War II, he was an aerial gunner and radio operator on B-24 Liberator bombers and is credited with 28 combat missions in Europe. In July 1944, on his 28th combat mission, a bombing run over Vienna, Austria, Chief Airey was forced to bail out of his flak-damaged aircraft over Hungary. He was captured by the German military and was taken to Stalag Luft IV, a prisoner of war camp near the Baltic Sea for Allied Airmen. In February 1945, Chief Airey and 6,000 fellow POW's were forced to march 400 miles to another camp near Berlin as the Soviet Red Army got closer. He was liberated in May 1945 by British forces. By that time, Chief Airey had dysentery and weighed less than 100 pounds.
Chief Airey reenlisted in the Air Force after completing a recuperation leave. He went to Naha Air Base, Okinawa, where he was responsible for radio repair. During the Korean War he was awarded the Legion of Merit, unusual for an enlisted person, for saving more than a million dollars in electronic equipment that would have deteriorated without the corrosion control assembly line he developed.
Chief Airey spent 14 of his 30-year career as a First Sergeant.
Before he became Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, he was assigned to the Air Defense Command's 4756th Civil Engineering Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, where he was the unit's First Sergeant. He retired Aug. 1, 1970. Chief Airey died in Panama City, Florida. on March 11, 2009.