"WELL, I'M HOOKED"

Principal rungs on General Twining's climb to Room No. 4E-Q29 in the Pentagon, office of the Chief of Air Staff:

Vital Statistics: Born Oct. 11, 1897, in Monroe, Wis., one of six sons in a family with strong Navy leanings. Father Clarence Twining was a well-to-do banker, Uncle Nathan Twining a rear admiral and (in World War I) chief of staff to Admiral William S. Sims (but Uncle La Verne Twining, a Los Angeles mathematics teacher, built his own airplane in 1908, launched it from a barn roof, crashed and broke a leg).

Education: Public school in Monroe and Portland, Ore. Joined Oregon National Guard in 1916 "without asking the old man" because "I liked to shoot." Won the Oregon National Guard's only appointment to West Point, graduated (1918) after 18 months with the accelerated "bastard class of World War I." Graduated infantry school (1920), advanced flight training (1924), Air Force tactical school (1936), Command & General Staff School (1937).

Family: While on duty at Schofield Barracks in 1932, married Maude Mc-Keever, daughter of a sugar broker on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Children: Richard, an Air Force Reserve pilot; Nathan Alexander, a promising pianist; Olivia, now at Holton-Arms Junior College in Washington. General Twining's elder brother, Robert, Annapolis, 1916, is a retired captain; his younger brother, Major General Merrill Twining, Annapolis, 1923, is deputy chief of staff of U.S. Marine Corps.

Professional Career: After infantry school, appointed as an aide to Brigadier General B. A. Poore, who finally endorsed Lieut. Twining's application for air training, snorting: "If he is crazy enough to want to transfer . . . we ought to help him." After a long siege of desk and staff jobs, named (1943) commanding general of the undersized Thirteenth Air Force in the South Pacific. On Jan. 26,1943, Twining's B-1 7 with 15 aboard was forced down at sea off the New Hebrides Islands. After six days on a life raft (during which Twining proved his marksmanship by shooting an albatross--for food--with his .45 automatic), all hands were rescued by a Navy patrol bomber.

Later that year, Twining swung through Washington expecting rest leave, instead got command of the new Fifteenth Air Force in Italy, engineered the heavy bomb raids on the Axis' Balkan underbelly, notably on Rumania's Ploesti oil refineries. After V-E day, briefly succeeded Curtis Le-May as commander of the Twentieth Air Force in the Pacific, four months later took over as boss of the Air Materiel Command, Wright Field. In 1947, Twining got command of the Alaskan theater, in 1950 became General Van-denberg's Vice Chief of Staff, and in June 1953, Chief of Staff. When Twining, thinking fondly of retirement, was notified of his appointment to the top job, he called his wife and said: "Well, I'm hooked."

Private Life: Outdoors, a passion for hunting, fishing, hiking; indoors, for woodworking (which he now rarely has time for), and tying fancy flies for next spring's fishing. Smokes six to eight cigars a day, drinks an occasional Scotch & soda, likes western movies to get his mind off work, and quietly frets at the social chores that go with his job.

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