Elwood Richard Quesada

Elwood Richard Quesada, CB, CBE (April 13, 1904 – February 9, 1993), nicknamed "Pete", was a United States Air Force lieutenant general, FAA administrator, and, later, a club owner in Major League Baseball.

Early years

Elwood Richard Quesada was born in Washington, D.C., in 1904 to an Irish-American mother and a Spanish father. He attended Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, Pa., University of Maryland, College Park, and Georgetown University.

Early military career

In September 1924, Quesada enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a flying cadet and was commissioned as a reserve officer a year later. He had a wide variety of assignments as aide to senior officers, military attaché and technical adviser to other air forces, and in intelligence. He was also part of the team (with Ira Eaker and Carl Spaatz) that developed and demonstrated air-to-air refueling in 1929 on the Question Mark. All five crew members were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for their participation in the mission.

Tactical airpower pioneer

As a junior officer, Quesada became interested in the concept of close air support of ground forces, which was thoroughly developed by the 9th AF during his time as commander in North Africa and Europe.

Quesada was instrumental in developing many of the principles of tactical air-ground warfare for the Ninth Air Force during the European campaign. Innovations attributed to him included adapting a microwave early warning radar (MEW) for real-time direction of fighter bombers that were already in-flight, as well as placing pilots as forward air controllers inside tanks equipped with VHF aircraft radios on the front lines.