Maj. Gen. Clarence L. Tinker - Anadarko, OK
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hamquilter
N 35° 04.386 W 098° 13.617
14S E 570480 N 3881422
Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City was named for Major General Clarence L. Tinker, an Osage Indian.
Waymark Code: WMCKM0
Location: Oklahoma, United States
Date Posted: 09/17/2011
Views: 1
The bust of Maj. Gen. Tinker stands along the walkway at the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians. His bronze sculpture sits atop a concrete pillar. He is dressed in a uniform jacket, shirt and tie. He is sporting a moustache. His plaque reads:
MAJ. GEN. CLARENCE L. TINKER
Osage – 1887 to 1942
Commanding General
U.S. Air Forces in Hawaii,
Lost in Battle of Midway, Pacific Ocean.
Sculptor: Leonard McMurry
Donor: Oklahoma City Air Materiel
Area, Tinker Air Force Base
Maj. Gen. McNickle, Commanding
Tinker was born in the Osage Indian Nation on November 21, 1887. He was the first American Indian in U.S. Army history to attain the rank of major general. Tinker entered the military after graduation in 1908 from Wentworth Military Academy. He served first in the Philippine Constabulary, and then in the U.S. Army infantry. He served 20 years as a pilot. In 1926, he moved to London as the assistant military attache for aviation at the American Embassy.
Over the years, his career was varied. Shortly after Pearl Harbor, he was appointed air forces commander of the Hawaiian department and ordered to re-organize the air defenses of the Central Pacific. He received a second star and became the highest-ranking officer of Indian ancestry in the U.S. Army.
On June 6, 1942, while leading a bomber flight engaging the Japanese fleet near Wake Island, Tinker’s plane dived into the sea. He was the first American general lost in action in World War II. His body was never recovered. He received the Distinguished Service Medal posthumously.
[Biographical information from the Museum’s Self-Guiding Tour pamphlet.]