Howard A. Craig, known as "Pinky" throughout his career, was another of the solid and dependable airmen who entered the service during the First World War, stuck with it through the lean years of the next two decades, rose to high rank during the Second World War, and then helped shape the new era and the new Air Force that followed. Craig was a bomber pilot during the interwar years-he participated in Mitchell's bombing of the battleships in 1923-and in 1941 joined the Air War Plans Division in Washington. He helped plan the North African invasion, then stayed on to command a fighter group in Tunisia. Returning to the Air Staff in 1943, he led the operations and requirements division, then was moved to the War Department general staff where he won a second star. After the war he headed the Alaskan Command for two years-a difficult tour marked by harsh operational conditions and low priority-and was promoted to lieutenant general. In 1947 Craig was named deputy chief of staff for materiel in the new Air Force. Following a brief stint as the inspector general, Craig was appointed commander of the National War College in 1952. He retired from that position in 1955.
After his death, Craig's memoirs were edited by Dale L. Walker and published as Sunward I've Climbed: A Personal Narrative of Peace and War (El Paso, Tex.: Texas Western Press, 1975). Like many such efforts that are written late in life, Craig recalls his earlier experiences more clearly and more fondly than the later ones. In this case, that is a plus because the author's memories of his life as a junior officer are both interesting and entertaining. In 1909 he saw his first aircraft on the beach at Atlantic City; the pilot, who actually offered him a free ride, was the noted pioneer aviator Walter Brookins. Craig was infected with the aviation bug that summer and never recovered. His account of life in the Air Corps is one of the best, relating a disturbing number of plane crashes brought on by poorly maintained and outmoded equipment and insufficient training that is a revealing portrait of garrison life in peacetime. Missing, however, is a discussion of the many problems faced by the new Air Force after achieving its independence in 1947. Pinky Craig, not one of our more famous airmen, was nonetheless a reliable and highly capable professional who served his country well. His memoirs are well worth reading.
Return: American Airpower Biography
Home Page | Feedback? Email the Editor