Major General Clarence Leonard Tinker (November 21, 1887 – June 7, 1942) was a career United States Army officer, the highest ranking Native-American officer (as a member of the Osage Nation), and the first to reach that rank.[1] During World War II, he had been assigned as Commander of the Seventh Air Force in Hawaii to reorganize the air defenses.
Clarence Tinker was born on November 21, 1887, near Pawhuska, Oklahoma, in the Osage Nation, the eldest son of George Edward Tinker and Sarah A. (Schwagerte) Tinker. He was raised as an Osage and learned the language and culture from his parents and extended family. His maternal grandmother was half-Osage; both her parents were mixed-race Osage. They had Osage mothers, and fathers who were French traders from Canada.
Tinker received his elementary education in Catholic schools at Hominy and Pawhuska, Oklahoma, and at the Elgin, Kansas, public school. Tinker and his friends learned about and idolized the 19th-century Osage Indian scouts who served with the U.S. cavalry, and Bonnycastle, the Osage chief who, according to Dr. James Crowder in his book, Osage General: Maj. Gen. Clarence L. Tinker.",[2] helped to suppress the "Boxer" rebellion in China.
While growing up, Clarence worked in the print shop of his father's newspaper, the Wah-Sha-She News. It was founded by his father and was one of Pawhuska's first weekly newspapers.[1] Beginning in 1900, Tinker attended the Haskell Institute, the famous Indian school in Lawrence, Kansas, but withdrew before graduating.
Tinker received his commission as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army infantry in March 1912. After infantry training, Tinker joined the Twenty-fifth Infantry Regiment at Fort George Wright in Spokane, Washington. In 1913, his unit was transferred to Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. There he met and married Madeline Doyle, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia. During World War I, Tinker served in the southwestern United States and California, and was promoted to major.
In 1919, Tinker began flying lessons. One of his assignments after the war was with the ROTC at Riverside High School in California. When his father came to visit him at the school, they began a conversation in Osage in public. Using his native language was one way that Tinker expressed his identity as Osage.
In 1922, he transferred to the Army Air Service. On July 1, 1922, he was assigned to flight duty. For a time, Tinker served as the air attache to the U.S. embassy in London. He studied at the Army Command and Staff College in the same class as Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In 1927, he was named Commandant of the Air Service Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas. Tinker commanded various pursuit and bomber units during the 1930s. He was steadily promoted, and on October 1, 1940, became a brigadier general.[3]
Clarence L. Tinker c. 1920
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Tinker was named Commander of the Seventh Air Force in Hawaii to reorganize the air defenses of the islands. He believed that the Air Force was going to be critical to the entire war, and that Japan would eventually be defeated through a long-strike effort by air.[2] In January 1942, he was promoted to major general, the first Native American in U.S. Army history to attain that rank.[3]
In June 1942, the Japanese began their assault of Midway Island. In the midst of the Battle of Midway, on June 7, Tinker decided to lead a force of LB-30s of the 31st Bombardment Squadron[4] against the retreating Japanese naval forces. Near Midway Island, his plane was seen to go out of control and plunge into the sea. Tinker and ten other crewmen perished. The plane and bodies were never recovered.[3] Tinker's son was also lost at sea while in a dogfight with German planes in 1944.
Legacy
Clarence L. Tinker was the first American general killed in World War II. (Rear Admiral Issac C. Kidd, USN, was killed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941). He received the Soldier's Medal in 1931 and was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal.[3]
A bust of the general is outside the Air Force Sustainment Center headquarters at Tinker. Several paintings of him, and a display of his awards and medals are in the Tinker Club. His personal papers and original decorations were donated to the base by his widow, Madeline Tinker McCormick.[2]
The Osage honor Tinker and Osages annually at their 4-day In-lon-shka celebration. The honor men and women for different things. A tribute song was written especially for Tinker, and his family dance and sing to it. His is the only family song for which all the people stand.[2]
James L. Crowder, Jr., "Osage Aviator: The Life and Career of Major General Clarence L. Tinker," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 65 (Winter 1987–88).
James L. Crowder, Jr., Osage General: Major General Clarence L. Tinker ([Midwest City, Okla.]: Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center, Tinker Air Force Base, 1987).
Raymond W. Settle, The Story of Wentworth, Kansas City: Spencer Printing Co., 1950.
John Woolery, "Major General Clarence L. Tinker," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 27 (Fall 1949).
