William E. Hall – Lieutenant General, United States Air Force

by

Courtesy of the United States Air Force

LIEUTENANT GENERAL WILLIAM E. HALL
Retired Sept. 30, 1961, Died May 28, 1984

Lieutenant General William E. Hall was commander of the nationwide Continental Air Command.

Continental Air Command – ConAC – trains the 15-wing Air Force Reserve, supervises the training and inspects the 24-wing Air National Guard, and is responsible for training more than 100,000 individual ready reservists.

General Hall has commanded ConAC since July 1, 1957. Previously he had served as assistant chief of staff for Reserve Forces in Washington.

A command pilot, be has more than 26 years flying experience and has logged more than 6,000 hours in the air.

In addition to commanding ConAC, an organization of more than 15,000 military personnel and more than 8,000 civilian employees, General Hall serves as senior member and Air Force representative of the U.S. delegation to the military staff
committee of the United Nations.

Born at McAlester, Oklahoma, in 1907, General Hall is a West Point graduate – Class of 1929.

An enthusiastic sportsman, he was active in athletics while at the Point. He captained the track team in his first class year and received All America honorable mention as a football center.

Following four years service with the Field Artillery, the General entered Primary Flying School at Randolph Field, Texas, in 1933 and graduated from the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field in that state a year later.

During his early Air Force career, General Hall filled a number of routine assignments – serving successively with the 78th Pursuit Squadron at Albrook Field in the Panama Canal Zone and, in 1937, as operations officer with the 14th Air Base Squadron at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C.

General Hall attended the Air Force Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Ala., in the Fall of 1939. Upon graduation he returned to Bolling Field as post adjutant. He became assistant executive officer there in July 1941.

In September 1941 the general was transferred to Air Force headquarters as general assistant to the air inspector. He became secretary of the Air Staff there a year later and deputy chief of Air Staff in March 1943.

During the crucial period of World War II, General Hall was assigned to the 15th Air Force in the Mediterranean Theater as chief of the American mission to Bulgaria. Later he was appointed deputy commander of the 15th Air Force in Italy.

Following V-E Day, the general returned to the States as deputy assistant chief of Air Staff for personnel. He was appointed Air Member of General Eisenhower's advisory group in 1946.

The following year General Hill was assigned to Turkey as chief of the U.S. Air Survey Mission – which conducted a modernization study of the Turkish Air Force. His next assignment was to Berlin – as director of intelligence for the commander-in-chief of the European Command during the Berlin Airlift.

Reassigned to Air Force headquarters in November 1949, General Hall was named deputy director of legislation and liaison in the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force. He became director the following May.

The general assumed command of the Fourth Air Force at Hamilton Air Pores Base, Calif., in January 1951. During early Fall of 1952, he was assigned as vice commander of the Continental Air Command at Mitchel Air Force Base, Long Island, N.Y.

General Hall was appointed assistant chief of staff for Reserve forces at Air Force headquarters in September 1953 – serving in that capacity until his assignment as ConAC's new commander at Mitchel on July 1, 1957.

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