Edwin W. Rawlings

Who was Edwin W. Rawlings?

General Edwin William Rawlings, USAF, A Milroy, Minnesota native, Rawlings graduated with an economics degree from Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He became a flying cadet in February 1929. Almost 25 years to the day later, he became one of USAF's youngest generals, confirmed for a fourth star at 49. He had also, by then earned an MBA from Harvard University.

Eugene M. Zuckert, Secretary of the Air Force from 1961 to 1965, credits Rawlings with building a mature, business-like" image for the newly established Air Force. Zuckert said Air Force Secretary Stuart Symington asked him in 1945 why he had to "send out a search party" whenever he needed Army Air Forces statistics. Zuckert remembered a memo suggesting the creation of a comptroller position and passed the idea on to Symington.