Frank Maxwell Andrews

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Frank Maxwell Andrews (February 3, 1884 – May 3, 1943) was a senior officer of the United States Army and one of the founders of the United States Army Air Forces, which was later to become the United States Air Force. In leadership positions within the Army Air Corps, he succeeded in advancing progress toward a separate and independent Air Force where predecessors and allies such as Billy Mitchell had failed. Andrews was the first head of a centralized American air force and the first air officer to serve on the Army's general staff. In early 1943, he took the place of General Dwight D. Eisenhower as commander of all U.S. troops in the European Theater of Operations. Andrews was killed in an airplane accident during an inspection tour in Iceland in 1943. He was the first of four lieutenant generals in the U.S. Army to die during the war, the others being Lesley J. McNair, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. and Millard Harmon. Joint Base Andrews in Maryland (formerly Andrews Air Force Base) is...

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