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Colonel Arthur Pierce & unknown female at Attlebridge, 1944
Colonel Pierce served as Commander of the 466th BG December 1943 - July 1944
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Crew #718 - Amos Sharretts Crew
466th BG - 787th BS
Standing Left to Right: Harold F Higgens (G), George Aeschbach (BTG), Alfred G. Nelson (TG), Robert D. Handley (B), W.P. Follis (FE), Amos B. Sharretts (P), William R. Don Carlos (G), Arthur J. Pierce (466th BG Commander), B. Androus (R/O), Dean O. Garvey (N)
Not in photo: Frank S. Cohen (CP)
This photo was taken upon arrival at Attlebridge from the U.S. as the group moved overseas to begin combat operations. Colonel Pierce chose this crew to fly over with and served as Co-Pilot on the trip displacing Frank Cohen who had to travel by sea.
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Colonel Arthur Pierce pinning a ribbon on Lt. Hank Tevelin (N). Lt. Bill Tikey, Tevelin's pilot, is beside Tevelin.
466th BG - 785th BS
Attlebridge, 1944
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Colonel Arthur Pierce pinning an award on Captain Thomas K. Trainer
466th BG - Attlebridge - Summer 1944
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Colonel Arthur Pierce (466th BG Commander) presenting DFC to Lt. John A. Wheelahan (Pilot - Crew #702)
Attlebridge
1944
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Colonel Arthur Pierce (466th BG Commander) presenting the DFC to Lt. Sid Bouwer (Navigator - Crew #702). The man over Bouwer's left shoulder appears to be Lt. Warren Falcon (Co-Pilot - Crew #614)
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Colonel Arthur J. Pierce (466th BG Commander) awarding the Air Medal to 1LT Nick Furnace (PIlot - Crew #615)
Furnace was part of the original compliment of pilots that came over with the 466th BG. He finished his 30 mission tour in early July 1944
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COL Arthur Pierce pinning the silver oak leaves of LTCOL Beverley Steadman's new rank on his shoulders
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SSGT Herbert K. Achterberg & Col. Arthur Pierce
Col Pierce is presenting SSGT Achterberg an "award" for his skill in eliminating vermin from around the base.
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Awards ceremony at Attlebridge, circa May 1944
Left to Right: Vito Calderalo (TG), Julian R. Thompson (FE), Claude Meconis (CP), Arthur Pierce (back to camera, 466CO), unidentified, unidentified, Joseph W. Tikey (P)
Caldero, Thompson, and Meconis were all on the Malcolm Dike Crew - Crew #504. Tikey was pilot of Crew #509
Between 31 March 1942 and 1 February 1943, Pierce was promoted 4 times, from 1LT to full Colonel.
BRIGADIER GENERAL ARTHUR J. PIERCE
Retired June 01,1966 Died November 28,1980
Arthur Jenkins Pierce was born in Greenfield, Mass., in 1909. He graduated from Turner's Falls High School in 1927 and from Northeastern University in 1932 with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering. He then applied for flying cadets and was appointed Feb. 20, 1933, at Springfield, Mass.
Arriving in San Antonio with his older brother, George E. Pierce, and a classmate from Northeastern, the Massachusetts contingent all graduated from flying school in February 1934. They were then assigned duty in the first class of flying cadets on active duty at Brooks Field with the 88th Observation Squadron. As a second lieutenant in the Air Corps Reserve, Lieutenant Pierce moved with the 88th Squadron, redesignated the 88th Long Range Reconnaissance Squadron of the newly activated General Headquarters Air Corps, to Hamilton Field in the Fall of 1935.
He served at Hamilton for five years as pilot; squadron operations officer, group navigation and bombing officer, and finally as group operations officer of the 9th Bomb Group under such commanders as Tinker, Curry, Davenport Johnson, and generals McNarney and Stratemeyer. During this period, the 9th Bomb Group won the General Headquarters bombing contest in 1938 and proved the endurance of combat crews by flying 57 out of 72 hours on a General Headquarters exercise.
Lieutenant Pierce was commissioned in the Regular Air Corps in 1938 and assigned as aide-de-camp to General Tony Frank in 1940. During the service as aide, he actively participated in the organization of the first air defense command for the U.S., the 3d Air Force and the 8th Air Force Service Command in England, and later organized and commanded the 27th Air Transport Wing in the European theater. During the period as aide he was assigned as a special observer in England where he flew with the Royal Air Force and Royal Canadian Air Force Bombardment Squadrons. In the latter part of 1942 and early 1943 he was appointed as staging commander for the dispatch of Air Corps units to Africa and personally briefed the three groups on their mission to Polesti.
Colonel Pierce returned to the United States in 1943 and after three months in the Air Materiel Command was assigned as group commander of the 466th Bomb Group which he took back to England in 1944 to participate in the first bombing mission on Berlin and the invasion of France. He later became chief of plans and requirements for Headquarters 8th Air Force.
It should be noted that he arrived in England as a first lieutenant which he remained until March 31, 1942, when he was promoted to a captain and major during one month, and to a full colonel during the next nine months.
During his missions he led the 8th Air Force as commander on missions to Epinal and the invasion of Europe, besides enjoying the air defenses at Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich, Leipzig, and Bordeaux. As a member of the Headquarters 8th Air Force he flew a medium altitude mission to Belgium and a fighter mission with the scouting forces in P-51s to Munich.
Upon return from Europe in 1945 he became chief of staff of the North Atlantic Wing of Air Transport Command at Manchester, N.H.; from there he joined the first class of the Air University. After graduating, Colonel Pierce was assigned with two other officers as the newly created Strategic Plans Division of U.S. Air Force headquarters, from whence he was assigned to the Joint Staff as the Air Force member of the Rainbow Team for the next three years. In 1950 he was assigned as student to the National War College and was detained at Fort McNair for the next two years as a member of the faculty. Upon release, he became chief of staff of the Far East Air Force and the U.S. Air Force representative to the Japanese government on the U.S.-Japanese Joint Committee.
During the period 1953 to 1956 he was promoted to brigadier general and decorated with the Third Order of the Rising Sun by the Prime Minister of Japan.
Upon return from the Far East, he became the director of plans and requirements for Continental Air Command and later for North American Air Defense Command.
General Pierce left NORAD and became deputy commander of the Aerospace Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, in August 1960, the position he held until Feb. 15, 1961, when he assumed command of ATIC, under the assistant chief of staff/intelligence, Headquarters U.S. Air Force. In July 1961, the ATIC was redesignated the Foreign Technology Division of the Air Force Systems Command.
Service
Units served with
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Group
The 466th Bomb Group flew B-24 Liberators from Attlebridge, Norfolk, during the last year of the war in Europe. The Group flew 232 missions in the course of the year and celebrated the 100th one by inviting local people onto the base to mark the...
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Headquarters
8th Air Force Headquarters opened in London under the command of General Carl A Spaatz on 19 June 1942. It oversaw all Commands, Wings and Groups engaged in the Strategic Bombing Campaign until February 1944, when it became US Strategic Air Forces in...
Events
Event |
Location |
Date |
Born |
Montague, Massachusetts |
30 January 1909 |
Graduated |
Boston, MA, USA |
1932 |
Northeastern University
BS - Civil Engineering
|
Commanded 466th BG |
Attlebridge, Norwich, Norfolk NR9, UK |
17 December 1943 – 31 July 1944 |
Buried |
Santa Rosa Beach, FL, USA |
1980 |
Burial:
Gulf Cemetery
Santa Rosa Beach
Walton County
Florida, USA
|
Died |
Walton County, FL, USA |
28 November 1980 |