Appointed by President Eisenhower, Lemnitzer became the fourth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on 1 October 1960. In July 1957 he became Vice Chief of Staff of the Army and two years later its Chief of Staff. Shortly thereafter, having received his fourth star, he became Commander in Chief of the United Nations and Far East Command and Governor of the Ryukyu Islands. In 1955 he assumed command of US Army Forces, Far East, and the Eighth US Army. Promoted to lieutenant general in August 1952, he became the Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Research.

Late in 1949 Lemnitzer became the first Director of the Office of Military Assistance in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where he was instrumental in setting up the US Military Assistance Program.įrom December 1951 until July 1952, Lemnitzer commanded the 7th Infantry Division, leading it in the Korean War battles of Heartbreak Ridge and the Punch Bowl. Concurrently, he headed the US delegation to the meetings of the Military Committee of the Five Brussels Pact Powers in London, which led to the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He then served for two years as Deputy Commandant of the National War College. In March 1945 he travelled incognito to Switzerland, where he met with German representatives and began discussions that resulted in the unconditional surrender of German forces in Italy and southern Austria.Īfter the war Lemnitzer was the senior Army member of the Joint Strategic Survey Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Lemnitzer, who was promoted to major general in 1944, also served as Chief of Staff to the Commanding General of the (US) Mediterranean Theater of Operations. Thereafter, Lemnitzer served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Staff to British General (later Field Marshal) Sir Harold Alexander, who was Commander in Chief, 15th Army Group, and later Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean. After resuming active command of his brigade, he led it through the Tunisian campaign and the early landing phases of the Sicily campaign. In January 1943 Lemnitzer became Deputy Chief of Staff to Clark in Morocco, where he worked to organize the US Fifth Army. Lemnitzer won the Legion of Merit for his participation in this mission. In October 1942 Lemnitzer accompanied General Mark Clark as second in command on a secret submarine mission to Algeria to meet with friendly French to enlist their assistance with the invasion. Because of his familiarity with the plans for the upcoming North African operation, he was soon assigned to General Dwight Eisenhower’s Allied Force Headquarters as Assistant Chief of Staff for Plans and Operations, responsible for final preparations for Operation TORCH, the North African invasion. Two months later he went to England as Commanding General of the 34th Antiaircraft Artillery Brigade. Promotions came rapidly, and by June 1942 Lemnitzer was a brigadier general. There and in subsequent assignments with General Headquarters, US Army, and Headquarters, Army Ground Forces, he participated in the planning for the mobilization and training of the rapidly expanding wartime Army and for the projected Allied landings in North Africa. In 1941, as the Army began to expand, Major Lemnitzer was transferred from an antiaircraft artillery brigade at Camp Stewart, Georgia, to the War Plans Division of the War Department General Staff. Over the next twenty years he served with coast artillery units, taught at West Point and the Coast Artillery School, and attended the Command and General Staff School and the Army War College. At his older brother’s urging, he entered the US Military Academy, graduating in 1920. However, DeMaio’s history with the Viper did not dampen his enthusiasm for the 187th’s mission of transitioning to the F-35 Lightning II and preparing for possible wars against Russia or China.Lyman Lemnitzer was born on 29 August 1899 in Honesdale, a small town in northeastern Pennsylvania. The colonel himself is an experienced F-16 pilot, with more than 2,800 hours flying the Viper and with five combat deployments to Southwest Asia under his belt.

Air National Guard)Īs wing commander, DeMaio was responsible for 1,400 personnel and 22 F-16 fighter jets, according to his command biography. Sparrow, Alabama Air National Guard commander, presided over the ceremony. DeMaio assumes command of the 187th Fighter Wing May 5, 2021, at a change of command ceremony held in the hangar at Dannelly Field, Ala. Most tours of command last two years before the officer is transferred to another assignment, and DeMaio’s three predecessors at the helm of the 187th all commanded the wing for about that long. Krimmel did not state the reason for DeMaio’s relief, but she said that there is currently no investigation underway.

Space force commander fired