Caleb V. Haynes

Caleb Vance Haynes (March 15, 1895 – April 5, 1966) was a United States Air Force (USAF) major general. The grandson of Chang Bunker, a famous Siamese Twin, he served in the Air Force as an organizer, able to create air units from scratch. He commanded a large number of groups, squadrons and task forces before, during and after . Haynes was a "pilot's pilot",

Early life He was born in Dobson, the county seat of Surry County, North Carolina, on March 15, 1895, to Caleb Hill Haynes, Jr. and Margaret Elizabeth "Lizzie" Bunker. The couple produced five daughters and four sons—Caleb Vance Haynes was the fourth child and the second son. At the time of his birth, his father was the Surry County, North Carolina Registrar of Deeds. The father continued to rise in North Carolina Democratic Party politics, serving as one of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention in 1912. A Mason, Caleb Hill Haynes, Jr. was the county sheriff for twenty years following which he was elected to the North Carolina General Assembly in 1931.

On his mother's side, Caleb Vance Haynes had Thai and Chinese ancestors through his grandfather Chang Bunker, one of the original Siamese Twins. The conjoined twins married sisters, with Chang Bunker marrying Adelaide Yates. The couple produced seven daughters and three sons, and lived west of Mount Airy, North Carolina. Three of their Anglo-Chinese offspring, including Lizzie Bunker, Haynes's mother, married into the local Haynes clan.

Young Caleb Vance Haynes grew up and went to school in Mount Airy. He moved some to the southeast to attend Wake Forest College. There, he graduated in 1917 with a Bachelor of Laws degree. Fancher died in April 1928, and Haynes succeeded him in command of the 116th. Haynes married and became a father during his time in Spokane, and he improved Felts Field, adding a photography laboratory. On the afternoon of August 12, the Navy sent to the airmen directions which were off by one degree of latitude, about to the east of the ship's actual position, and the bombers did not find the battleship. The next morning, Haynes and Olds flew the lead YB-17 with LeMay as navigator, and General Headquarters Air Force commander General Frank M. Andrews as an observer to witness the results. Haynes descended below the fog to find the Utah, and commenced bombing at 11:47 a.m at a low altitude of . At 11:59, the last YB-17 dropped its bombs, for a total of three direct hits out of fifty water bombs dropped. NBC began broadcasting to the U.S. on the main transmitter, while Meloy spoke over the other radio with Captain Cavellini of the Rex, who jokingly invited all of the airmen down for lunch at his table. Aboard another B-17, USAAC's top photographer, Major George W. Goddard, snapped a shot of Haynes and fellow pilot Archibald Y. Smith flying their two B-17s over the Rex "at smokestack level"—Goddard later enthused that the photo "made the front page of every newspaper around the world".

1938 to Pearl Harbor

Late in 1938, Haynes commanded a provisional group of nine YB-17s that were to test bombing accuracy over Plum Tree Island, a bombing range near Langley at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Carrying two bombs each, the aircraft flew at in single file, and aimed at a single point, dropping their bombs in quick succession. Observation showed exactly half the bombs striking inside of a diameter circle centered on the target. Haynes commanded the Boeing XB-15 on an earthquake relief mission to Chile in 1939. Haynes piloted the XB-15 again on June 10 to return home the body of Mexican flier Francisco Sarabia who had died in a crash in the Potomac River. After flying back from Mexico City, Haynes and his copilot William D. Old undertook flight tests at Fairfield, Ohio, lifting very heavy loads. They used the XB-15 to lift to , and to , setting two world records. and at that time organized the Puerto Rico Sector of the VI Bomber Command. He was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel.

Haynes was called to Washington, D.C. in June to command a single B-24 Liberator to be used to test a northern Atlantic air route to Great Britain. On July 1, 1941, he took off from Bolling Field and refueled in Montreal, then again at Gander Lake, Newfoundland before arriving in Ayr, Scotland in the first B-24 delivered overseas. A total of 22 round trip flights were made by others in the next three-and-a-half months, however, Haynes was directed to scout another air route across the southern Atlantic from the U.S. to Brazil to Africa, with the terminus in Cairo, Egypt. On August 31 with Major Curtis LeMay as his co-pilot and Chief of the Air Corps Major General George H. Brett as a passenger, Haynes took off from Bolling Field to begin a round trip journey to Egypt and beyond, conveying Brett to Basra, Iraq, on a special mission. Haynes and LeMay retraced their flight to land back in the U.S. on October 7. With the southern route thus proved satisfactory, the UK agreed to purchase 16 B-24s to be delivered by this method to Cairo—one quarter of that number made the trip before the remainder were redirected into American service.

World War II In December 1941 at the start of direct involvement of the U.S. in , Haynes was made base commander of Borinquen Field, an important defensive stronghold in the Caribbean and the first refueling stop after Florida in the southern route to Cairo. The following February he returned to Washington, D.C., to organize Force Aquila, the advance party of the Tenth Air Force, an operation that intended to bomb Tokyo using B-17s and B-24s flying from bases in the Zhejiang province of eastern China, supplied by C-47 Skytrains. In Florida, Haynes gathered a force of one B-24, 12 B-17 bombers and a small group of C-47s. Haynes and his mixed unit flew individually to Brazil, then Africa, and on to Karachi, India; landing in April 1942 with no losses. One of the B-17 pilots, Robert Lee Scott, Jr., wrote about his view of the voyage in his autobiography, God Is My Co-Pilot. Haynes began organizing the supply lines for HALPRO, beginning with aviation fuel deliveries to China. On April 9, Colonel William D. Old piloted the first flight over the Hump; and was accompanied on some missions by just one P-40 Warhawk fighter flown by the outfit's executive of operations, Colonel Robert Lee Scott, Jr., who had shifted to flying a fighter once HALPRO was canceled.

On May 4, 1942, Haynes flew to rescue 30 members of General Joseph Stilwell's mission when they got cut off in Northern Burma, though "Vinegar Joe" himself refused the lift, preferring to walk out with the remainder of his force. Haynes subsequently dropped supplies to Stilwell's group as they made their way west through the jungle. On one such mission, a Japanese fighter attacking his C-47 was discouraged into retreat when the crewmen of the supposedly unarmed transport opened up on it with fire from Thompson submachine guns and 45-caliber M1911 pistols. Haynes, in command of no bombers with which to retaliate, instead loaded a transport with fragmentation bombs and had some soldiers throw them out over enemy forces. He returned the next day to drop leaflets which read "Compliments of the Old Broken-Down Transport Pilot". For this action, Haynes was awarded the Silver Star.

Flying ace Colonel Robert Lee Scott, Jr. led the fighters protecting Haynes's bombers. In June 1942, Haynes went to China to organize and command the Bomber Command of the China Air Task Force (CATF) under General Claire Chennault. His fighter group counterpart was Scott—the three air leaders were the subject of a Life magazine article in August which described them as like-minded Southerners who "are quietly tough, despise the word can't, eliminate all red tape and allow subordinates full range for individual initiative". Haynes's task force assembled three bomber groups: the 7th BG Heavy, the 51st Fighter Group and the 341st BG (Medium). On paper were more squadrons not yet prepared for war—some had no aircraft, some had too little training and some were bare cadres. On October 25, ten B-25 Mitchells led by Haynes took off on the final leg from an advance airfield at Kunming, accompanied by seven P-40s commanded by Scott. The small force destroyed a transport ship, bombed Hong Kong's vital Kowloon Harbor and claimed 27 enemy aircraft for the loss of one bomber and one fighter.

In October of that year, he became commanding general of the I Bomber Command of First Air Force at Mitchel Field, flying anti-submarine warfare missions along the Eastern Seaboard. In July 1944, he went to MacDill Field in Florida, where he took over the III Bomber Command, a bomber training group that also hunted for submarines.

In July 1949, Haynes became Inspector General, Military Air Transport Service (MATS) at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. He was appointed deputy commander for services of MATS two-month later, at the rank of major general. In January 1951, he assumed command of the 3750th Technical Training Wing at Sheppard Air Force Base, Wichita Falls, Texas.

Haynes and his wife toured the American West after his retirement, indulging themselves while searching for a permanent residence. Some of the general's friends suggested Wichita Falls, the city of his last military post, but he left to assess the possibility of living in Taos, New Mexico, where he and his airman son hiked and explored ancient human settlements. Deciding against Taos, Haynes and his wife continued in their tour, soon finding Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, to their liking. There, he bought two adjoining lots on North Carmelo Street with one existing house. He was a member of the Quiet Birdmen, a secretive fraternal order of pilots, and he joined the American Legion. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on April 8.

Awards and decorations Among Caleb V. Haynes military decorations were the following:

Mackay Trophy Order of the Merit of Chile

Effective dates of promotion Private, First Class, Aviation Section, Signal Corps – August 15, 1917 Second lieutenant (temporary), Air Service – May 31, 1918 Second lieutenant – June 1920 First lieutenant – July 1, 1920 Captain – October 14, 1932 Major (temporary) – August 27, 1936 Major – November 1, 1939 Lieutenant colonel (temporary) – March 21, 1941 Colonel (temporary) – January 5, 1942 Lieutenant colonel – March 4, 1942 Brigadier general – September 5, 1942 Major general – September 1949