Lieutenant General Ranald T. Adams Jr.(United States Air Force)(Biography)

LIEUTENANT GENERAL RANALD T. ADAMS JR.

Retired Aug. 1, 1981.

Lt. Gen. Ranald T. Adams Jr. is chairman of the Inter-American Defense Board in Washington, D.C. The mission of the Inter-American Defense Board, in accordance with Resolution XXXIV of the Bogota Conference, is "to act as the organ of preparation and recommendation for the collective self-defense of the American continent against aggression, and to carry out, in addition to the advisory functions within its competence, any similiar functions ascribed to it by the Advisory Defense Committee of the Organization of American States."

General Adams was born in 1925, at Fort Sill, Okla., the son of on officer in the Field Artillery, U.S. Army. During his youth he lived on various Army posts, graduating from high school in Columbia, S.C., in 1941. He attended Virginia Polytechnic Institute for two years prior to entering the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., in 1943. He graduated in 1946 with a bachelor of science degree and commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a rated pilot. He earned a master of science degree from The George Washington University in 1966.

After fighter transition training and a brief tour of duty as a troop carrier pilot, he was assigned in October 1947 as a P-51 pilot in the 31st ...