7-14-2024 12:22am

July 14, 1974: Four Star General Carl A. Spaatz Succumbs to Massive Heart Attack

Lesley Misko Editor

July 14, 1974: America has lost a great man. Four Star General Carl A. Spaatz has died at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C. following a massive heart attack.

His resumé includes Air pioneer, operations commander in World War II, and the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, which he had helped to create. He is buried in the cemetery at the United States Air Force Academy, which he was also instrumental in founding.

Spaatz garnered many honors during his military career. In a White House ceremony, president Harry S, Truman presented Spaatz with the Distinguished Service Medal for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service to his country, and he had been invested with the Knight Grand Cross of the British Empire by King George VI.

In his memory, tributes have poured in from civilian and military leaders, in America and abroad. Sir John Slessor, Marshal of the Royal Air Force of Great Britain wrote, “Tooey was one of the relatively few Commanders on either side in World War II to whom can honestly be applied that much overworked word, ‘Great.’”

At the memorial service, the Chaplain of the Air Force Academy said that Spaatz’s role in the Allied victory in World War II was an eminent one, the choir sang “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” an Honor Guard fired a 21-round salute, and from a nearby hill, the mournful strains of “Taps” filled the air. One of America’s greatest airmen had made his last flight.