Army Career

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.

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. In January 1942, he was promoted to major general, the first Native American in U.S. Army history to attain that rank.

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 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. Tinker's son was also lost at sea while in a dogfight with German planes in 1944.Want to know more Click Here