Horace Meek Hickam

Horace Meek Hickam
Horace Meek Hickam
	Lieutenant Colonel
Commands held	3rd Attack Group
Battles/wars	Mexican Punitive Expedition
Awards	Silver Star

Horace Meek Hickam (August 14, 1885 – November 5, 1934) was a pioneer airpower advocate and an officer in the United States Army Air Corps. Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, is named in his honor.^[1]

Background

The son of a lawyer, Hickam was born in

11th Cavalry, serving in Vermont 1908–09, Georgia 1909–11, and Texas

1911–13.

In 1911, while at

Villistas led by Candelario Cervantes; and at Piojo Canyon on June 20. In November 1916, Hickam left the 7th Cavalry to serve as a Professor of Military Science at the University of Maine and received promotion to captain of Cavalry, in May 1917, after the United States entered World War I. He joined the 18th Cavalry in July, but this unit was redesignated as field artillery

.

Air Service and Air Corps duty

Hickam's association with aviation began with the United States' entry into World War I. On 22 September 1917, he received temporary promotion to major in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps and was assigned to organize the Aviation Concentration Camp at Garden City, New York. From October 1917 to May 1918 he served as executive officer of the Aeronautical General Supply Depot and Concentration Barracks there.

In May 1918 he reported to

U.S. Air Service. Hickam continued advanced flying training at Dorr Field, Arcadia, Florida. From 30 September 1918 to 30 January 1919, he was commandant of both the Pursuit School and the Aerial Gunnery School at Carlstrom Field

.

On January 21, 1919, Major Hickam was appointed chief of the Information Division, Office of the Director of Air Service, in

Washington D.C.

, where he supervised the first written history of the Air Service. He reverted to his permanent rank of captain on 30 June 1920, received a promotion to major, Cavalry on 1 July, when the National Defense Act of 1920 took effect, and received a transfer to the Air Service in the grade of major on 6 August 1920.

In January 1923, Hickam became assistant commandant of the Advanced Flying School,

General Staff

.

Hickam was promoted to

lieutenant colonel on March 1, 1932, and given command of the 3rd Attack Group, based at Fort Crockett, Galveston, Texas. From February to June 1934, during the Air Mail scandal, he commanded mail delivery operations in the Central Zone, headquartered in Chicago

.

On May 10, 1926, while a student at the ASTS, he collided in mid-air during a flight formation with fellow student, Major Harold Geiger. Hickam parachuted to safety, and narrowly escaped death. This resulted in Hickam's initiation into the famed "Caterpillar Club," a fraternal order with membership based on surviving an emergency parachute jump.

Death

Hickam was killed in a landing accident at

A-12 Shrike, 33-250, of the 60th Service Squadron,^[2] he was practicing night landings on an unlighted strip when his aircraft struck an embankment and flipped over. Hickam, age 49, was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.^[3]