Alfred W. Marriner – Brigadier General, United States Air Force

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Courtesy of the United States Air Force

BRIGADIER GENERAL ALFRED W. MARRINER
Retired May 1, 1946.

Alfred W. Marriner was born on August 16, 1891, in Chicago, Illinois He attended the University of Illinois and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Aviation Section, Signal Reserve, on February 6, 1918. From February to May 1918, he was on duty as a Student Engineer Officer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. He then served brief tours of duty in Mitchel Field, New York, and Hazelhurst Field, New York, from June 1918 to May 1919.

From June 1918 to June 1928 he served as Post Exchange Officer and with the 5th and 2nd Observation Groups at Luke Field, Hawaii. He also served as Post Signal Officer at Luke Field. On his return to the United States he was assigned to the Rockwell Air Intermediate Depot at Rockwell Field, Calif., as acting Signal Officer and Meteorological Officer in July 1922.

In December 1922 he was transferred to Crissy Field, California, for duty with the 91st Observation Squadron, and in May 1923 became Post Signal Officer at Crissy Field. His next assignment was at Dodd Field, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, in August 1928, where he was assigned to the 12th Observation Squadron, 2nd Division Aviation, for staff duties. He became Post Adjutant at Chanute Field, Illinois, in September 1930. He was named Director of the Department of Communications, Air Corps Technical School, at Chanute Field, in May 1931.

In December 1933 he was assigned to the Office of the Chief of Air Corps for duty in the Training and Operations Division. In February 1934 he became Assistant Chief of Staff, G3, Headquarters Army Air Corps, Mail Operations, Office of the Chief of Air Corps. In July 1936 he became Chief, Communications Section, Training and Operations Division, Office of the Chief of Air Corps.

He enrolled in the Air Corps Tactical School, Maxwell Field, Alabama, in August 1937, and graduated in June 1938. The following September he entered the Army Industrial College, Washington, D.C., and upon completion of the course in June 1939 he proceeded to Wright Field, Ohio, as Executive Officer, the Experimental Engineering Section, Air Corps Materiel Division. He was named Assistant Technical Executive, Air Corps Materiel Division, in October 1939, serving in that capacity until October 1940 when he was ordered to London, England, as a Military Air Observer. After a brief tour in England, he returned to his duties at Wright Field.

In December 1941 he was named Chief of the Communications Division in Office of the Chief of the Air Corps, Washington, D.C., and in March 1942 became Director of Communications, Headquarters Amy Air Forces, Washington, D.C. He was designated Communications Equipment Officer in the Office of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff, Materiel, Maintenance and Distribution, Washington, D.C., in March 1943. The following September he was given an assignment as Deputy Air Signal Officer-in-Chief, Allied Expeditionary Air Forces with station in England. In April 1944 he transferred to North Africa as Communications Officer, Army Air Forces in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations.

He is rated a combat observer.

PROMOTIONS
First lieutenant, Air Service, Regular Army, July 1, 1920; major (temporary), June 16, 1936; major (permanent), June 12, 1939; lieutenant colonel (temporary), Nov. 16, 1940; lieutenant colonel (permanent), Oct. 15, 1941; colonel (temporary), Jan. 5, 1942; brigadier general (temporary), June 25, 1943.

GENERAL MARRINER, 68, IS DEAD
Expert on Communications
Was Vice President of Federal Electric Corporation

HILLSDALE, New Jersey, December 5, 1959 – Brigadier General Alfred W. Marriner, USAF, retired, former vice president of the Federal Electric Corporation of Paramus, New Jersey, died of a cerebral hemorrhage this afternoon at Pascack Valley Hospital.  His age was 68.

General Marriner, who was born in Chicago, attended the University of Illinois and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  His military career was spent mostly as a communications expert in the Army Air Corps.  This specialization began in 1920, two years ager he had become a Second Lieutenant.

During World War II, he served as Director of Communications in the Officer of the Assistant Chief of Air Staff, and later as a communications officer in England and Italy.  It was during the war, in 1943, that he became a Brigadier General.

For his wartime service he received the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster and was also decorated by the British and Italian Governments.

General Marriner retired from active service at the end of the war to become director of the Aviation Department of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation.

He later became a vice president of the Federal Electric Corporation, which tool part in the construction of the Dewline, the Arctic string of radar stations built to detect approaching enemy aircraft.  He retired from Federal Electric three years ago.

He is survived by his widow, the former Bernardine Hull.

Funeral services for General Marriner will be held Wednesday in the St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Hillsdale.  Burial will be in Arlington National Cemetery.

MARRINER, ALFRED W
B/GEN USAF
DATE OF BIRTH: 08/16/1891
DATE OF DEATH: 12/05/1959
BURIED AT: SECTION 6  SITE 9452 LH
ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

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