Remember when ... Brig. Gen. Robert Travis

  • Published
  • By John Lacomia
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing History Office
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  At six feet two inches tall, Brig. Gen. Robert Falligant Travis was an imposing figure. He was a man that pooled together his resources and expected excellence not only from himself, but also the people that worked for him. While commander of Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base (now Travis AFB), it was not uncommon to see the general riding his bike to work with his dog "Dan" running along side of him.

General Travis was born on Dec. 26, 1904 in Savannah, Ga. and was the son of Maj. Gen. Robert J. Travis of the National Guard. In 1924, he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Upon graduation in 1928, then 2nd Lt. Travis entered the Air Corps Primary Flying School at Brooks Field in San Antonio, Texas. He would then move on to the Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field also in San Antonio.

It was during his time in San Antonio that Travis met his future wife Ms. Frances Jane Johnson. The couple would be married a short time later and would have a daughter Jane and three sons, Robert Jr., John and Roger over the next 17 years.

By the end of 1929, Lieutenant Travis was transferred to Mitchel Field in New York as a field artillary and then engineering officer to the First Observation Squadron. Over the course of the next 10 years, Travis would move on to Langley Field in Virginia and become an armament and intelligence officer for the 49th Bombardment Squadron and then the 2nd Bombardment Group.

In March 1939, Captain Travis became an operations officer and then flight commander for the 72nd Bombardment Squadron at Hickam Field, Hawaii. Three months later, he was made commander of the squadron. Before departing Hickam Field for MacDill Field in Florida in May 1941, Travis would be elevated to rank of major.

At MacDill, Major Travis became the commander of the 43rd Bombardment Squadron, then the executive officer of the 29th Bombardment Group. On March 20, 1942, now Lt. Col. Travis became the commander of the 29th Bomb Group. As World War II was winding up, Travis would move forward just like the war effort. He would move the 29th from MacDill Field to Gowen Field in Idaho.

From September 1942 until August 1943, Colonel Travis would be assigned to bases in Idaho, Iowa and Texas. On Sept. 2, 1942, Travis took command of the 15th Bombardment Training Wing. He would go on to become the commander of the 20th Bomber Command in El Paso, Texas on July 3, 1943. By the time Travis took commander of the 20th he had received received promotion to the rank of Brig. Gen. (May 4, 1943).

With all his experience, it was now time for General Travis to deploy overseas. On Sept. 16, 1943, the general took command of the 41st Combat Bombardment Wing at Molesworth England. Flying the B-17 "Flying Fortress" for the 8th Air Force, Travis would go on to fly 35 combat missions over the next 13 months. General Travis would fly his last combat mission for the 41st on Sept. 21, 1944.

Upon returning to the United States, General Travis would have have command assignments at Grand Island Army Air Field in Nebraska, Sioux Falls Army Air Field in South Dakota and then Sioux City Army Air Base in Iowa. From the summer of 1946 until the summer of 1947, General Travis completed the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington D.C.

In August 1947, General Travis moved the family back to Hickam to become the Chief of Staff for the 7th Air Force. By September 1948, he was now the commanding general of the Pacific Air Command at Hickam. Their stay in Hawaii would be brief and would only last until June 1949 when Travis received his next assignment in California.

On June 16, 1949 Brig. Gen. Travis assumed command of the 9th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing (later the 9th Bombardment Wing in 1950) at Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base. The base, already flying the B-29 "Super Fortress," had become the major military air base on the Pacific Coast. With the expansion of the Strategic Air Command's mission in the new Air Force, General Travis assumed command of a second unit on Feb. 1, 1950, the 5th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing.

As commander of two wings, Travis continued to help expand the size of the base and ensure the safety of the United States. Then on June 25, 1950, Communist North Korea invaded the South, which then thrust the country into another war. By August, the North Koreans had overrun most of the Korean Peninsula.

On Aug. 5, 1950, Brig. Gen. Travis and a crew of 19 boarded a B-29 enroute for Anderson Air Force Base, Guam took off at 10 p.m. Minutes later the aircraft experienced mechanical trouble and crashed landed in a field near the family camp. The B-29 caught fire upon impact and as a result 12 aircrew and seven base personnel perished. General Travis was among the fatalities.

General Travis was one of the Air Force's finest leaders. Over his military career, he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the three Silver Stars, four Distinguished Flying Crosses, the Purple Heart, four Air Medals and the Presidental Unit Citation, just to name a few. He was a man who rose to the top in difficult situations and never turned away from a challenge.

Due to an enormous amount of community support, the name of Travis would not be forgotton. On April 21, 1951 with California Governor Earl Warren standing beside General Travis' family Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base was re-named in honor of Brig. Gen. Robert Travis. His contributions to national security in peacetime and war proved to be indispensible. His legacy lives on at Travis, where the men and women stationed here still live up to that standard of excellence that he expected more than 58 years ago.