Adolph Edward Tokaz
MilitaryGroup Commander
340th Bomb Group - 12th AF
During his distinguished 24-year military career, Col "Tik" Tokaz was an admired leader - from the battlefield to the Pentagon.
Tokaz trained the first permanently stationed B-25 air crews at the Columbia Army Air Base, shortly after Doolittle's Raiders had gathered there.
Tokaz went on to fly combat missions with the 340th Bomb Group and later became the unit's commander at the young age of 30. He personally received the surrender of the first Italian pilots to defect from the Italian Fascist Air Force.
Tokaz planned and flew in B-25 bombing missions against Field Marshal Rommel's forces during the North Africa Campaign. His unit was also heavily involved in the bombing of enemy troops, fortifications, and supply lines throughout the Mediterranean theatre of operations. During his wartime experience, Tokaz flew 17 combat missions. The 340th was awarded the Distinguished Unit Citation by Gen. Ira Eaker, commander of the Mediterranean Allied Air Force.
After the war, Tokaz participated in the secret hydrogen bomb tests in the Pacific in 1951. He piloted the C-47 transport from which an Air Force photographer snapped the first official government photograph of the first hydrogen bomb explosion. The photo was published in newspapers around the world.
Connections
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Units served with
- Unit Hierarchy: Group
- Air Force: Ninth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
- Unit Hierarchy: Squadron
- Air Force: Ninth Air Force
- Type Category: Bombardment
Places
- Site type: Airfield
- Known as: Catania–Fontanarossa Airport
- Site type: Airfield
- Known as: Comiso Airport
- Site type: Airfield
- Known as: RAF Kabrit
- Site type: Airfield
- Known as: Foggia "Gino Lisa" Airport
- Site type: Airfield
Events
Event | Location | Date | Description |
---|---|---|---|
Born |
Walpole, MA | 2 March 1913 | |
Other 340th BG Commander |
Sfax, Tunisia | 7 May 1943 - 7 January 1945 | Took over command of the 340th BG at Sfax and commanded the group as it moved to several N. African and Italian bases for the next eight months. |
Died |
Columbia, South Carolina | 30 September 2001 | |
Buried |
Saluda, South Carolina | 2 October 2001 | Travis Park Cemetery Saluda, Saluda County, South Carolina, USA |
Revisions
Rank error correction. signed John C. Tokaz (son). Added additional assignments during North Africa/Italy/Corsica campaign 1943-1944.
Rank error correction. signed John C. Tokaz (son). Added additional assignments during North Africa/Italy/Corsica campaign 1943-1944.
Rank error correction. signed John C. Tokaz (son). Added additional assignments during North Africa/Italy/Corsica campaign 1943-1944.
First and last name was changed by him in August 1939 from Adolf Edward Tikofski to Adolph Edward Tokaz after a check of his father's Ellis Island immigration record posted in 1907. Ellis Island administrators advised his father's record was transposed in error during recording of another passenger record. This was done off duty during his familiarization with harbor procedures by the Coast Guard. This was prior to his participation in the 1939 New York Maneuvers flying the US mail in an Army Air Corps OA-9 amphibian plane from New York Harbor to Watertown, NY with an interim water landing/stop in the Hudson River at West Point to make a delivery/pickup of US mail. His refueling was at Floyd Bennett Field with an overnight stay in airfield quarters there on weekends . signed John C. Tokaz (son).