Vice Commander, Air Defense command
Shade 84 - Service
Bomber Pilot

Lieutenant General Charles Bainbridge Westover was born in 1916 at Madison Barracks, New York. He was vice commander of the U.S. Air Force Air Defense Command, Ent Air Force Base, Colorado.

ADC organizes, trains, equips and provides forces for defense of the North American continent against aerospace attack. General Westover was born in 1915. His first assignment was with the 19th Bomb Group at March Field, California, and it was as a member of this unit that he took part in a pioneering mass flight of bombers to Hawaii from California in 1941.

He was reassigned to Headquarters Air Force Combat Command (1941) and in August to the 3d Bomb Wing. He participated in both the Louisiana and Carolina maneuvers as an operations officer of a provisional Army Air Support Command.

He became aide to the commanding general, First Air Force and Eastern Air Defense Command, Mitchel Field, N.Y. (1942). He served as executive officer of a special U.S. air mission in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; various positions in the U.S. until he was reassigned to the Eighth Air Force in England.

There he served first as chief of staff of the Second Bomb Division; commander of the 448th Bomb Group; Operations Division of the War Department General Staff and for one year with the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (1945).

After graduation from training he was then assigned to Headquarters Strategic Air Command where he served as chief of the Programs Division in the Directorate of Plans (1952). His next move took him to the Far East Air Forces as commander of the 98th Bomb Wing, Yokota, Japan.

Upon his return to the United States, he was named commander of the 12th Air Division, March Air Force Base, California (1953). He remained there until he was reassigned to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, as commander of the newly organized 819th Air Division (1956).

General Westover served as director of plans at Headquarters SAC (1957-1960), when he was named commander of the 7th Air Division in England. Returning to the United States he served several posts in Washington (1961-1962) until he assumed his last post of vice commander, ADC, in August 1965.

His decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with two oak leaf clusters, Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster, Bronze Star Medal, Air Medal with four oak leaf clusters, Croix de Guerre with Palm (France) and the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. He is a command pilot and is credited with 300 combat flying hours on 42 combat missions.

He retired July 1, 1967 and died July 28, 1978  in Hialeah, Florida.