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GENERAL BENJAMIN O DAVIS

1

BY: - WILLIAM COURTNEY
****

If the United States Air Force is committed to battle to aid Chiang Kai Shek save the off-shore islands of Quemoy and Matsu near China it will be commanded from Formosa by America's only Negro Air Force General. He is tall, athletic, quiet, handsome, self-effacing Brigadier-General Benjamin O Davis Jr. and his father was the first Negro General in the U.S. Army. I spent a morning with him at Formosa some weeks ago when in a charming cultured voice and with an evident air of command he outlined the nature of his task at Formosa.

Standing over 6 ft 2 ins and every inch a cultured gentleman Brigadier-General Davis would grace any Air Force or Army. His command is known as "AIR TASK FORCE 13 PROVISIONAL" and his temporary Headquarters are loaded in a dilapidated building at Teipai capital, while hammering and concrete mixing across the road spoke of feverish activity at construction of a new permanent headquarters block for the staff. He sits behind a moveable screen separating his office from his Chief of Staff on the one flank and his clerks and telephones on the other.

By his own personality and even aristocratic air of quiet authority - as to the manner born - he has impressed himself on his staff who are all white men, many of them from the Southern States including Alabama or the Miss Lucy segregation challenge.

The all accept him without question and all rise respectfully and stand to attention like good soldiers when he enters or leaves a room.

"AIR TASK FORCE 13 PROISIONAL" was born in june 1955. It has this ^[[Task Force Headquarters, the Formosa Air Base Group and other support]]

Transcription Notes:
Last line is handwritten to translate bottom line which is partially obscured.