Albert Boyd – Major General, United States Air Force

Courtesy of the United States Air Force

MAJOR GENERAL ALBERT BOYD
Retired October 30, 1957. Died October 1, 1976.

Albert Boyd was born in Rankin, Tennessee, in 1906. He graduated from high school at Asheville, North Carolina, in 1924 and attended Biltmore Junior college.

Appointed as aviation cadet in October 1927, General Boyd completed his flying training and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Reserve on February 28, 1929.

Assigned at Maxwell Field, Alabama, he received his regular commission as a Second Lieutenant of Air Corps on May 2, 1929. That December he became a flying instructor at the Air Corps Training Center, Brooks Field, Texas, later serving in that capacity at Kelly and Randolph fields in Texas. He was transferred to Chanute Field, Illinois, in August 1934 as engineering and operations officer and secretary of the Air Corps Technical School. Going to Hawaii in May 1939, he became assistant engineering officer of the Hawaiian Air Depot, and chief engineering officer in December 1941.

Joining the Air Service Command in February 1943, General Boyd was assistant control officer at Patterson Field, Ohio and the following April became chief of the Maintenance Division of the Middletown Air Service Command, Middletown, Pennsylvania. Reassigned to Patterson Field in January 1944, he was named special assistant to the commanding general of the Air Service Command, and a month later he was appointed deputy chief of the Maintenance Division.

When the Air Service Command was redesignated the Air Technical Service Command in September 1944, and moved to Wright Field, Ohio, General Boyd was named chief of the Maintenance Division. The following July he was appointed deputy commander of the Eighth Air Force Service Command. Named acting chief of the Flight Test Division there in October 1945, the general became chief of the division the following January, assuming additional duty as an experimental test pilot, retaining that position when the Air Technical Service Command was redesignated the Air Materiel Command.

Assuming command of Edwards Air Force Base, Air Research and Development Command at Muroc, California, a test center for experimental aircraft and equipment, in August 1949, in July 1951 General Boyd was redesigned commanding general of the Air Force Flight Test Center there. He became vice commander of the Wright Air Development Center, ARDC, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio in February 1952, and assumed command that June. On August 1, 1955 the general moved to ARDC headquarters, Baltimore, Maryland, to assume duty as deputy commander for systems.

His decorations include the Legion of Merit and Distinguished Flying Cross. He is rated a command pilot, combat observer and aircraft observer.

BOYD, ALBERT
MAJOR GENERAL United States Air Force

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 11/22/1906
  • DATE OF DEATH: 09/18/1976
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 11  SITE 773-1
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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