Robert Emmett Condon – Brigadier General, United States Air Force

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Courtesy of the United States Air Force

BRIGADIER GENERAL ROBERT E. CONDON
Retired March 31, 1956.  Died January 26, 1981

Robert Emmett Condon was born in Wilbarger County, Texas, in 1896. He attended high school at Amarillo, Texas, the Catholic Academy at Shawnee, Okla., and the Kansas City School of Law and Commerce.

Enlisting in the Army as a Private, General Condon trained with the 35th Division, and served two years with the American Expeditionary Forces in France, advancing through the ranks to Sergeant. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in March 1918. Just prior to the end of World War I he was detailed as administrative aide to the Armistice Commission and assigned as executive aide to the special envoy of the United States and representative of President Wilson on each of his visits to Europe. Following the Armistice General Condon was detailed to set up the Paris Versailles Peace Conference organization for the American peace delegation and then served as an executive secretary for the conference. He accompanied President Wilson from Paris to England, Belgium, Italy, and on the president’s first return trip to the United States in February 1919. That November he was relieved from duty and commissioned a Captain in the Reserves.

Between the two world wars, General Condon served with government agencies and commissions, private industry, and civil bodies, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and International Chamber of Commerce, traveling in 26 countries of Europe and Asia surveying and reporting on politico-economic subjects. He is a past national president of the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce; founder and past president of the Young Men’s Board of Trade of New York; founder of the Brooklyn Junior Chamber of Commerce; and first chairman of the New York City Traffic Commission. President Wilson appointed him executive director of the Federal Commission; President Hoover appointed him a sub-chairman of the Airport Fact Finding Commission; and President Roosevelt appointed him alternate chairman for the Veteran’s Review Board for New York.

General Condon served as an officer and director of a number of corporations, including the Hofgaard-Remington Corporation; was an organization and public relations counsel in New York City for a number of years; editor of “Expansion” for two years; founder and editor of “The Sky-Line” for three years; and for six years was with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and editorial analyst for the 26 Bell publications.

One of the originators of the American Legion, General Condon served for several years as a member of its National Executive Committee; was New York State district commander; chairman of the 1937 American Legion National Convention Committee; and American Legion commander in Peking, China, in 1920.

Commissioned a Major in the Reserve in April 1942, General Condon was recalled to active duty. That July he was graduated from the Air Intelligence School at Harrisburg, Pennsylvnaia, sent overseas as combat intelligence officer of the 98th Bomb Group in the Middle East Theater of Operations; and later went to the Mediterranean Theater of operations. Returning to the Air Intelligence School in March 1943, he became director of the Academic Planning Board and acting executive officer. That September he was assigned to the First Air Force, and the following March was named assistant chief of staff, intelligence, of the First at Mitchel Field, New York, and in March 1946 of the Air Defense Command there. He was relieved from active duty in October 1946 as a Colonel.

Returning to New York City, General Condon later became president of the National Economic Mobilization Council; organized and served as commander of the XVI Air Service Command (Organized Reserve) at Slocum Air Force Base, N.Y.; served two years as president of the First Air Force’s Reserve Advisory Board; two years as president of the Air Materiel Command’s Air Reserve Advisory Board; was a member of the National Councils of the Reserve Officers Association and the Air Reserve Association; and national president of the Ninth Air Force World War II Veterans Association. In February 1948 General Condon was promoted to the rank of Brigadier General in the Air Force Reserve.

Recalled to active duty on March 15, 1951, as a Brigadier General, General Condon was designated chief of the National Organizations Branch, Office of Public Information, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In April 1952 he became deputy for Reserve Affairs at Continental Air Command headquarters, Mitchel Air Force Base, New York.

His decorations include the Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal, and Officer of the French Foreign Legion.

CONDON, ROBERT EMMETT

  • MAJ GEN   US AIR FORCE
  • WORLD WAR I, WORLD WAR II, KOREA
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 03/17/1896
  • DATE OF DEATH: 06/26/1981
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 65  SITE 657
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

CONDON, CAMILLE GERTRUDE

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 09/27/1900
  • DATE OF DEATH: 09/29/1983
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 65  SITE 657
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY
  • WIFE OF CONDON, ROBERT EMMETT MAJ GEN US AIR FORCE

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