Posted by Jim Carbine '46 on January 7, 2010:

I first got to know LEW at Stewart Field as we were going through Basic Pilot Training. He was a quite cadet who was very business-like and dedicated to the task at hand i.e., learning to fly the T-6 Trainer on his way to earning his Pilot Wings before graduation. Back at West Point I had little contact with him as he was in a flanker company and I was down in one of the shorter companies and our paths rarely crossed. After graduation and completion of our upgrade transition to B-25s he was assigned to Carswell AFB while I was at Roswell Army Air Base NM flying B-29s. I later learned he went on to Graduate School in Nuclear Engineering and that is where his intelligence was fully recognized and his career blossomed to finally he was selected as the Air Force Chief of Staff due to our nation's concern with the cold war and the opposing nuclear threat of the Soviet Union to our National Security. During this time we flew together in a T-33 down to South Carolina for him to address the students at the SC university on the importance of nuclear weapons in our world relationships. I had the privilege of sponsoring a class luncheon at the Bolling AFB Officer Club in the Chief of Staff Memorial Dining Room where he was honored by his Army and Air Force classmates as the "highest ranking officer" in our 1946 West Point Class. Lew was real officer and gentleman who never was impressed by his note-worthy achievements and he will be solely missed by all who knew him. My condolences to Barbara and his fine family.

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