Frederick Kimble

Frederick von Harten Kimble (10 August 1895 – 19 August 1978) was a United States Air Force brigadier general. Kimble graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in June 1918 with the lowest grades in his class. He was commissioned in the Infantry Branch but transferred to the United States Army Air Corps in 1926. During World War II, he commanded the Air Corps Advanced Flying School where the Tuskegee Airmen were trained, and the island of Tinian, from which the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were launched.

Early life Frederick von Harten Kimble was born in Portland, Oregon, on 10 August 1895, the son of Edwin Kimble and his wife Elvira von Harten Kimble. He had an older brother, Edwin Richardson Kimble. His father died in 1901 and the family moved to Galveston, Texas, where Elvira's sister, Agnes von Harten, lived. Kimble entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, on 15 June 1915, just three days after his older brother Edwin had graduated second in the class of 1915.

World War I During World War I, Edwin was attached to the British V Corps on the Western Front, and he died of sepsis after a surgical operation on 9 April 1918. Due to the war, Kimble's class, which was to have been the class of 1919, graduated early, on 12 June 1918. Kimble graduated as the last of his class, ranked 137th.

Kimble was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 36th Infantry, part of the 12th Division. He was sent to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for a 10-week course at the Infantry School of Arms. After graduation, he became an infantry instructor in trench mortars, one-pounders, hand grenades, bayonets, field fortifications and physical training, first at Fort Sill, and then at Camp Benning, Georgia. He was promoted to the temporary rank of first lieutenant on 1 October 1918. Kimble returned to the United States in March 1927, and was assigned to the 1st Pursuit Group at Brooks Field. He was the commandant of the Flying Cadet Detachment and an instructor at the Air Corps Primary Flying School at March Field, California, from October 1927 to 12 May 1929.

For his next assignment, Kimble went to Washington, D.C., as an aide to the Assistant Secretary of War.

Kimble became commander of the island of Tinian in the Philippine Sea on 28 November 1944. Bombers based on Tinian participated in the campaign of air raids on Japan, including the bombing of Tokyo on 10 March 1945, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945. He was awarded an oak leaf cluster for his service as island commander.

Dates of rank