Ralph Royce

Ralph Royce (28 June 1890 – 7 August 1965) was a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II. A West Point graduate who learned to fly in 1915–16, he served with the 1st Aero Squadron in the Pancho Villa Expedition and later led it on the Western Front. During World War II as a brigadier general, he led the Royce special mission to Mindanao, in which a small force of bombers flew from Australia to attack Japanese targets in the Philippines. Later he was Deputy Commander of the Ninth Air Force and commanded the 1st Provisional Tactical Air Force.

Early life

Ralph Royce was born in Marquette, Michigan on 28 June 1890 and attended school at Hancock, Michigan. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point on 1 March 1910. During his senior year, he served as captain of the ice hockey team. He graduated 12 June 1914, ranked 89th in merit in a class of 107 cadets, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 26th Infantry. Among his fellow graduates included men such as William H. Holcombe, James B. Cress, Charles P. Gross, Brehon B. Somervell, Robert W. Crawford, Dabney O. Elliott, Arthur R. Harris, LaRhett L. Stuart, John B. Anderson, Harry C. Ingles, James L. Bradley, John H. Woodberry, Harold F. Loomis, Carl Spaatz, Harold R. Bull, Charles M. Milliken, Joseph W. Byron, Paul C. Paschal, Francis R. Kerr, Vicente Lim, Sylvester D. Downs Jr., Orlando Ward, Benjamin G. Weir, William O. Ryan, Frank W. Milburn, John B. Thompson and Jens A. Doe. All of them would later rise to the rank of brigadier general or higher in their later military careers. In 1915, Royce was detailed to the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps (ASSC) and sent to the Signal Corps Aviation School at Rockwell Field, California, for pilot training. On graduation on 16 May 1916, he was rated a Junior Military Aviator and promoted to temporary first lieutenant in the ASSC.

World War I

Royce was posted to the 1st Aero Squadron, He briefly commanded the squadron in March 1917,

Between the wars Royce experienced the chaotic ups and downs in rank common to Regular officers in 1920, when the National Defense Act of 1920 reorganized the military. He first reverted to his permanent rank of captain of Infantry 1 March 1920 when his temporary ranks expired. On 1 July 1920, when the Air Service became a combatant arm of the line, he formally transferred to the branch, with promotion to major by virtue of a provision in the Act that allowed officers who earned their rank in service with the AEF to retain it. On 18 December 1922 he was discharged when Congress set a new ceiling on the number of majors authorized the Air Service, and reappointed as a captain, then promoted again to major on 11 July 1923. For this, Royce won the Mackay Trophy.

In July and August 1934, he piloted one of ten Martin B-10 bombers from Washington, DC to Fairbanks, Alaska and back, as Operations Officer for an expedition led by Henry H. Arnold, for which Arnold won the Mackay trophy. In February 1935 he led the 1st Pursuit Group in a series of a cold weather flights through the northern states where the airmen encountered blizzards, and subzero temperatures. For leading the mission, Royce was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

Subsequent war service A meeting, less than a month before the Normandy landings, of (from left to right) Brigadier General Richard C. Sanders, CG of the 100th Fighter Wing; Major General Ralph Royce, then Deputy Chief of Staff for the Ninth Air Force; Lord Trenchard, Marshal of the Royal Air Force; Brigadier General Otto P. Weyland, CG of the XIX TAC

In the May 1942 organization of South West Pacific Area, Royce became senior air staff officer, Allied Air Forces. He was promoted to major general in June 1942. Royce returned to the United States in September 1942 and assumed command of the South Eastern Training Center at Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Alabama. He commanded the First Air Force from April to September 1943. He then commanded the Personnel Distribution Command at Louisville, Kentucky until August 1945.

Post-war Royce received a disability retirement from the military in July 1946. He died of leukemia on 7 August 1965 at the Homestead Air Force Base Hospital in Miami-Dade County, Florida.