James R. Allen

Who was James R. Allen?

General James Rodgers Allen was commander in chief of the Military Airlift Command, with headquarters at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois,

He served as a pilot in combat during parts of the Korean War and the Vietnam War, and otherwise was in training, training others, or contributing in planning, administrative or management capacities.

While a planner in the Pentagon, "he was a principal architect of a joint Army-Air Force helicopter raid in 1970 on a camp in North Vietnam, where American prisoners were believed to be held. No prisoners were found."

He was Superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy during 1974-1977, and was its seventh Superintendent in that role. During his superintendency, the first women cadets started at the academy: on 26 June 1976, 157 women entered, of whom 97 would eventually graduate in 1980.

He was born on November 17, 1925 in Louisville, Kentucky. He entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1944 and was in military service for his full career, retiring on July 1, 1983. He died of cancer at the hospital of Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland on August 11, 1992.

An official United States Air Force biography, written in 1981, reports: