The Doolittle Raiders Group of Brigadier General Richard August "Knobby" Knobloch

 

Footnote: Richard August "Knobby" Knobloch (May 27, 1918 - August 13, 2001) was a Brigadier General in the United States Air Force. He was born on May 27, 1918 in West Allis, Wisconsin, near Milwaukee, the son of William M. Knobloch and Mary M. Shanks. He would later move to Milwaukee, and then to Lake Forest, Illinois, where he graduated from Lake Forest High School, before returning to Wisconsin, where he enrolled at the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1936, in order to be a veterinarian and joined the ROTC (Reserve Officers' Training Corps) program. Knobloch met the woman that would later become his wife at an ROTC spring formal, Rosemary Alma Rice. The couple would marry on August 1, 1943 and have two daughters, Sandra and Lynda. They had dated for about a year when, in 1940, Knobloch made a decision, that would interrupt his college studies and his love life. He knew that he had to "do something" about the war situation and joined the Aviation Cadet Program with the United States Army Air Forces, on November 25, 1940 at Randolph Field, Texas. Knobloch had had an interest in aviation since the age of nine, which was initially triggered by Charles Lindberg's visit to Milwaukee in 1927, as Lindberg was on a tour after he had made his flight to Paris aboard the Spirit of St. Louis. Knobloch took his flight training at Randolph and Kelly Fields in Texas, receiving his pilot wings on July 12, 1941 and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. His first assignment was to the 37th Bombardment Squadron, Pendleton Field, Oregon, as Pilot and Assistant Operations Officer. The squadron's mission was submarine patrol of the U.S. West Coast, flying the B-25 Mitchell, until he volunteered and was selected for a secret mission, to be led by Lieutenant Colonel James "Jimmy" Doolittle, in February 1942. Just two months after the Pearl Harbor attack, the United States Army Air Forces planned to retaliate by bombing Tokyo and four other Japanese cities, taking advantage of the fact that American aircraft carriers could approach near enough to the Japanese mainland to make such an attack feasible. Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle lead the mission, known officially as the 1st Special Aviation Project (later known as the Tokyo Raid and later nicknamed the Doolittle Raid), assembling a volunteer force of aircrews, who began their top-secret training by learning a new technique, to make their North American B-25 Mitchell medium bombers airborne in the short distance of 500 feet or less, to simulate taking off from the deck of an aircraft carrier. The future raiders had weeks of hazardous training at Eglin Field, Florida and the Naval Air Station at Alameda, California. Knobloch only had about sixty hours in the B-25 up until April of 1942, when the raid took place. He would be interviewed years later about the experience, stating "We were all part of the 17th Bomb Group, which was the only organization in the United States that had B-25's. We had about three weeks training down at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida and then one morning were called about four or five in the morning and told, "Pack your bags - - - we're going to Alameda, California". Not yet knowing we were going to raid Japan. It was kept highly classified and we didn't even discuss it among ourselves. Only one person beside General Doolittle in our group knew what our target was. And that was Jack Hilger. He was the deputy commander of our little group. We started with about twenty-two crews and of these, sixteen were finally selected as the ones to go. We went out to the west coast to the Sacramento Air Depot first and spent a couple of days there, where they did some work on the aircraft. Then moved on down to Alameda Naval Air Station and were loaded on board the U.S.S. Hornet. When we were loaded on the carrier, we were still not sure of our target. There was a little bit of guessing whether we were going to Japan or maybe we would be going around the end of South America and attack Rome, Berlin, or whatever. We really had no idea. After loading, they towed the aircraft carrier out into the middle of San Francisco Bay and gave us shore leave. We could see the carrier from the shore sitting out there with the B-25's on the deck. There were some pretty wild parties that night because we knew we were leaving the next day." During this time, Knobloch would talk to his girlfriend and future wife in Wisconsin, Rosemary Alma Rice, before leaving the San Francisco area board the U.S.S. Hornet. The Hornet (CV-8) was a Yorktown-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. In addition to launching the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo, the Hornet would go on to participate in the Battle of Midway, the Buin-Faisi-Tonolai Raid, the capture and defense of Guadalcanal and the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, where she was irreparably damaged and sunk by enemy destroyers. Hornet was in service for a year and six days and was the last U.S. fleet carrier ever sunk by enemy fire. Knobloch went on to describe the trip aboard the U.S.S. Hornet in detail: "We were all aboard by 8 o'clock the next morning. It was a beautiful day. We sailed out under the Golden Gate Bridge heading due west. It was pretty obvious where we were going! Shortly after we lost sight of land, the captain of the ship, Mark Mitscher, came on the PA (Public Address) System and announced to all of us, ''Our destination is Tokyo! " He further said Admiral Bull Halsey, with an additional number of ships, would meet us somewhere north of Hawaii, and that Bull Halsey had declared he'd take us right into Tokyo Bay if possible. We spent our time on the aircraft carrier working on the aircraft, making sure the guns fired properly, checking bomb shackles, tuning up the engines, and getting everything ready. We had a whole series of targets that we looked at. They were pretty lenient, permitting us to select the ones we thought would do the most damage. They were listed in order of priority and we were met by Bull Halsey's task force about the 7th of April. We ended up with two aircraft carriers, four cruisers, eight destroyers and two tankers. Still heading almost due west toward Japan. Finally on the morning of April 18th, about five in the morning, there was a call to General Quarters. And for us, the Army Air Corps crews, our combat post was our aircraft. So we rushed to the flight deck and when we got there, were told to go back down and get our B-4 bags and come back as soon as we could because we were going to be launched. At that time while on deck, we could hear and see one of the cruisers had dropped out of the task force and was shelling a Japanese picket ship sitting not too far away. It looked like a small fishing boat. Also some aircraft had been launched from the other carrier in the task force and they were dive bombing". The vessel in question was the Japanese patrol boat, No. 23 Nitto Maru, which had radioed their position. It was subsequently sunk by the Brooklyn-class light cruiser U.S.S. Nashville. The original plan was to fly at night, then bomb in the early morning, and recover in China during daylight. But the spotting of the U.S.S. Hornet by the No. 23 Nitto Maru about 670 miles from Japan, on April 18, 1942, forced a earlier departure for the sixteen aircrews. Admiral William F. "Bull" Halsey, commanding the daring operation from the U.S.S. Enterprise, launched Doolittle's North American B-25 Mitchell's about 150 miles early, at the extreme of the aircraft's distance and fuel requirements. Knobloch went on to describe the conditions and scrambling on board the Hornet: "The reason we had to be launched was because the Japanese would know where we were and they would send out aircraft to attack the task force. It was just about all the naval forces the United States had in the Pacific, because most of our naval power had been lost at Pearl Harbor. There was much scrambling and getting ready. The seas were pretty rough, in fact we were taking water over the bow occasionally when the carrier would get in proper sync with the waves. It wasn't raining and the base of the clouds were not too high. The carrier was cruising at about 20 knots and we probably had about 45 to 50 knots of wind across the deck. The first aircraft to take off was General Doolittle, at 8:20. He had no problem getting airborne. The other aircraft followed in about three to five minute intervals behind him. We couldn't use the whole deck because the Navy didn't want us taking off aft of the superstructure of the carrier for fear we'd blow a tire or lose an engine and the aircraft would fly into the superstructure and set the whole carrier on fire. So we each had the same distance for our takeoff roll. We taxied to a position just even with the superstructure and waited there for the launch signal. One of the fellows had a little problem. That was Ted Lawson. His flaps milked up somehow and instead of taking off at full flaps, he took off with zero flaps and rolled off the end of the deck and we thought, oh, oh, there goes the first one into the ocean. But he finally pulled up and recovered and there was no problem. Ted was a damn good pilot and saved the airplane. Trav Hoover also had a problem as he hadn't rolled the stabilizer tab to the proper position. Ted Lawson and his crew later had a movie made about them and it was called "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo" ". Lieutenant Richard A. "Knobby" Knobloch (Co-Pilot, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin) of Crew 13 (know as Lucky Thirteen and nicknamed "The Avenger"), 37th Bomber Squadron was aboard a B-25B Mitchell aircraft, the 13th of 16 aircraft, that also included Lieutenant Edgar E. McElroy (Pilot, of Ennis, Texas), Lieutenant Clayton J. Campbell (Navigator, of St. Maries, Idaho), Sergeant Robert C. Bourgeois (Bombardier, of Lecompte, Louisiana) and Sergeant Adam Ray Williams (Engineer/Gunner, of Gastonia, North Carolina). The crew's target was the Yokosuka Naval Station, the only plane assigned to this location, with the other fifteen planes focusing on various targets: ten to Tokyo, two to Yokohama, two to Nagoya and one to Kobe. Knobloch was one of the eighty airmen who, under the leadership of Jimmy Doolittle, disembarked from the U.S.S. Hornet in the first bombing raid over Japan in the Second World War, which became known as the Doolittle Raid. Knobloch continued, describing the flight and bombing: "We approached Japan about 1 o'clock, the sixteen airplanes having sixteen individual targets. Doolittle had all incendiaries on his aircraft because we had hoped to get off at dusk and hit Japan at night. Doolittle being first would set fires. If the city was blacked out, as we fully expected it to be, we would have been able to use the fires that he started with his incendiaries, to help us find our own individual targets. However, it was bright daylight and the weather constantly improved as we got closer to Japan. Most of us were, I won't say lost, because a pilot is never lost, but maybe, a little disoriented as we hit the coast of Japan. So it took a little flying around until we found some good check points and could make our runs. Our particular target was the naval base at the entrance of Tokyo Bay: Yokosaka. If you've ever been to a naval yard, I'm sure you're aware of how compact everything is and you can't miss with bombs. We had three 500 pound demolition and one 500 pound incendiary. It was an incendiary cluster of about 125 little individual bomblets. When the casing hit the air stream, it broke up into these 125 little bomblets and scatter­ed across the naval yard. You couldn't miss. The 300 bombs came down right on target. I was co-pilot. As all pilots know, a co-pilot doesn't really have much to do, just to get his hands slapped now and then and told to serve the coffee and that sort of thing. One thing I did do, I took some pictures over the target. They happen to be the only pictures that came out of the Tokyo raid. I took one out of the right side and one out of the left. We all had cameras in our aircraft but we lost all the aircraft so we lost all the cameras except mine, which I bailed out with. So any pictures you see taken over Japan, were mine. I guess that makes me the official photographer. So I was doing something over the target! Left Japan and headed back out to sea to confuse the Japanese, so they would think we were going to some secret base out in the ocean. All the time we were flying as low as we possibly could. In fact, we had to pull up to about a thousand feet to drop our bombs so the demolition wouldn't blow us out of the sky. When we lost sight of land, we headed back around the tip of Japan and across the Yellow Sea into China." After having bombed the Yokosuka Naval Station and the other bombers having made it to Japan and dropped their bombs, the squadron of aircraft turned southwest for China. All but one of the B-25s ran out of fuel before reaching their recovery airfields in China and as a result, their crews were forced to either bail out over China or crash-land along the coast. The remaining plane made its way to Vladivostok in the Soviet Union and was met with a very inhospitable welcome. Of the eighty airmen, three were Killed in Action (two off the coast of China, one on the Chinese mainland), eight were taken as Prisoners of War (three later executed, one dying in captivity, four later repatriated), while the other sixty-nine survived, seven of the survivors (including all five members of Lawson's Crew 7) receiving injuries serious enough to require medical treatment. Although fifteen of the sixteen raiders crash landed in China or were lost at sea, it was a tremendous boost for the United States, which had been stung by the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor. The raid caused negligible material damage to Japan, but it achieved its goal of raising American morale and casting doubt in Japan on the ability of its military leaders to defend their home islands. It also contributed to Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto's decision to attack Midway Island in the Central Pacific, an attack that turned into a decisive strategic defeat of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) by the United States Navy in the Battle of Midway. Doolittle, who initially believed that the loss of all his aircraft would lead to his court-martial, received the Medal of Honor and was promoted two steps to Brigadier General. Knobloch's Crew 13 themselves were quickly running out of fuel, forcing them to put the aircraft on autopilot, followed by their bailing out at 22:45. They successfully parachuted, all five landing near Poyang, north of Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, China. He went into detail, describing the remaining flight of Crew 13 and its harrowing ordeal in the air and on the ground, thereafter: "The weather, which had been good over Japan but steadily got worse. Most of the aircraft climbed up into the weather and we had automatic pilots and it was something. They called it AFCE (Automatic Flight Control Equipment). It was electrical, not very good, but you didn't have to work too hard. We flew about fourteen hours and then the gauges started to look pretty empty on all the tanks. The indicator was flickering against the empty. We knew it was time to get out. The pilot, McElroy put it on AFCE, and we gathered around the escape hatch, which didn't look very interesting because it's only about two feet square and it's in the bottom of the B-25. You just lifted up a little floor and then you pulled the lever and kicked the hatch out. And here was this black hole with rain seeping up in, it sort of reminded me of the black hole of Calcutta, which I saw later. The crew chief was supposed to go first so Adam Williams started to get out and then crawled back in. He got his legs out and he crawled back up in and he shook hands with all of us and he said, "Well, so long fellows." Then he started to go out again and then he started to crawl back up again and I put my foot on his head and pushed him out and said, "See you on the ground!" The Bombardier, who was a Sergeant, went next, then the Navigator, then myself, then the Pilot. I was scared only one time on that raid. And that's when my parachute opened. I had never bailed out before. In fact, none of us had except Doolittle. All the people that were on the raid, 16 airplanes, 5 men to a plane, 80 men, only one man had ever bailed out. It was Doolittle's third jump. When that parachute opened, there was a jerk and I thought to myself, oh, oh, your parachute canopy is tangled in the empennage (tail assembly). So I was frightened. But then the next thing I knew, I was swinging gently down through the clouds. So I got over that and right away thinking, what am I going to do when I hit the ground? Because we didn't know where we were over China. We didn't know whether we were over land, or Japanese-occupied China, or free China. It was a little interesting thinking, "What are you going to do to evade the Japanese?" And if you come down in the water, are you going to survive? But then I broke out of the overcast and in spite of the fact that it was pitch black, I saw what looked like a road and a river down below. I thought, gee, that's great. I'll be able to come down near a hamburger stand and get a hamburger and a glass of milk. But I hit the ground about that time without any warning. It was wet. Landed in a rice paddy! I wasn't hurt; took my parachute, rolled it up in a ball and tucked it under a bush alongside the rice paddy and then started to walk. I had a little tiny compass they'd given us and we had agreed that we would all walk on the heading that the airplane was on when we bailed out, hoping that we could assemble. I walked a little way and I had a flashlight along with my camera in a pocket of my flying suit. I had a couple of cans of C rations. I took the flashlight out and flashed it around the sky a little bit and got seven answers. Or seven lights also flashing. I thought to myself, well there's only five of us in the crew and seven lights. Gosh, it didn't take much of a mathematician to figure there was somebody else out there. I put that flashlight away and didn't use it. Well, anyway, walked aways and got to a river, a creek, and started to wade across it and got up to about my waist and decided it was going to be too deep. So went back and found a stack of rice straw and crawled into it to keep warm, for it was raining. Pretty soon I saw a light coming toward me. It was the pilot who was walking in a reciprocal course of the airplane. I didn't know that. I could just see somebody's legs and he got to the other side of the water and the light went out. I sat there a while and finally said, "Hey" and didn't get any answer. Tried it again a little louder: "Hey!" Still no answer. And finally, I loudly yelled, "Hey Mac." A voice came back, "Is that you Knobby? " So I knew it was McElroy. We chatted a while across this water and I told him it was too deep to wade. He said, "Okay, I'll stay over here, you stay over there 'til dawn and we'll see if we can get together". It was about eleven or twelve o'clock at night. I went back to the stack of rice straw, then and curled up. It was nice and warm in there and I must have fallen asleep because first thing I knew, it was daylight. We were able to get together the next morning. We found something that resembled a boat and I paddled across to Mac's side and took him back to the side of the river I was on. I'd lost my 45 (pistol) when I bailed out. Very foolishly, I had put my cartridge belt on over my parachute harness so when the chute opened, the 45 flew off, so I lost it. Mac said, "You don't have to worry, I'll protect you." We still didn't know where we were. We started walking on the aircraft reciprocal heading, saw a couple of people and they avoided us, made big circles around us. They were obviously peasants, Chinese farmers. We headed toward a village, and then people came out of the village and started to gather. Mac says, "I'll stay out here and protect you and you go in there and see if you can find out where we are". I went into the village and they took me to one of the mud houses and gave me some hot water with an egg in it.....food. I kept trying to talk to them but couldn't. I knew they were Chinese. They knew no English. Finally I heard a voice say, "Do you speak English or American?" It shocked me. I was so surprised that I looked all around, but couldn't find the source. Pretty soon this voice says, "Are you English or American?" And here was a guy right in front of me. I said, " Oh, boy, you speak English!" But that's all he knew. He knew no other word. He didn't know thanks, please, yes, goodbye, north, south, east or west. Knew no other words. I went back out to Mac and said, "They don't know a thing in that village!" So we started to walk again. Pretty soon we came across the other crew members. Our crew chief, Adam Williams, had bailed out with two 45's on his cartridge belt. He gave me one so I was finally armed again. We started going through the countryside. A boy about fourteen or sixteen years old ran in front of us, and made noises like a gun and made believe he was shooting. Then got in front of us and pushed us. So we decided that wasn't the right way so we just headed off in another direction. Then he smiled and it was all right. We walked a while and pretty soon, came upon a man with a weapon: a rifle. He stopped and presented arms type of thing with his gun at the ready. We kept trying to talk to him. He had no uniform but he had a little button with the flag of China on it. So we figured, well, he's Chinese. And then as we got closer, I jumped him and took his gun away. It almost came apart in my hands. I found it was tied together with rice straw. I opened it and there was no bullet in it. This Chinese lacked everything but courage. He didn't know who we were. But anyway he was a guerilla, fighting behind the lines and without weapons as obviously his gun was no good. He took us to a command post and there we found a Captain who spoke a little English. He took us to another place and we finally assembled with the others. The engineer sprained an ankle a little but it didn't interfere too much with his walking. There were eleven crews that bailed out. Four either ditched or crash landed. One crew went to Vladivostok. President Roosevelt had asked Joseph Stalin, the Soviet leader, if all the airplanes could go to Russia because it would have saved all the airplanes. The distance to Vladivostok was not very far. But Stalin was busy on the western front with the Germans. And he said, "Under no circumstances. No airplanes can come." But this fellow had excessive gas consumption and the only thing he could do, was to head up to Vladivostok and land wheels down. So his crew became guests of the Kremlin, if you will. They were interned and finally, fifteen months later, they escaped from Russia across the Iranian border and turned themselves in to the American consul." Knobloch reflected upon the mission years later, answering the question, "How could you do any damage with four 500 pound bombs?" His reply: "Our material damage, although not substantial, was considerable. Secondly was the morale impact. It was good for the morale of the United States and its Allies and bad for the morale of the Japanese and the Axis powers. It was obvious that Japan could be attacked. This was just the first strike of many others to follow. Thirdly, another effect of the raid was the Japanese had expanded their perimeter into China; they were making attacks on Australia; they had sunk two British battleships, the Repulse and the Prince of Wales, in the Indian Ocean. They had taken Indonesia. As a result of our attack on the homeland, sea and air forces went back to Japan, to protect the Emperor and their home islands. Number four, they got the forces back to Japan and then said, "Okay, now in order to prevent another attack like this, we are going to have to go for the United States." So they assembled a fleet, a very large task force, and headed east towards the United States. They were intercepted and as a result, near Midway, and the Battle of Midway occurred. There was a large Japanese fleet and a very small American fleet. The U.S. Navy, was very much outnumbered but they whipped the pants off the Japanese and that stopped the movement towards the western coast of the United States. That was strategically the biggest impact of the Tokyo raid." A little over two weeks after the raid, Knobloch filed the following report: "Chunking, China / May 4, 1942. / Subject: Report of Engineering. / (Airplanes #40-2247, 40-2297, 40-2282, 40-2344) / To: Chief of Air Corps -- Attn. General Doolittle. / Engines and accessories. All four airplanes ran cool and one crew chief claimed he could have obtained better engine performance on auto lean with winterized equipment on engines. Oil pressures and temperatures were normal at all times. On three ships the AC - LS - 85 plug gave satisfactory performance and was highly recommended. The other crew chief claimed the BG - LS - 65 would be better. The difficulties encountered were confined to occasional starving of engine on manual lean (less than auto lean setting). No excessive corrosion noticed on engines or engine accessories. Airplane in General. Bomb shackle adaptors, and antennae leads corroded considerably due to salt air probably. No corrosion noticed on aileron, appendage or flap hangar bolts and posts. Bomb-bay, turret, crawl-away, and wing tanks gave satisfactory performance. No major difficulties in airplane were encountered during the mission. Recommendation by all four ships that fuel transfer pump be located so as work could be performed on it in flight. RICHARD A. KNOBLOCH 1st Lieut. A.C." After the raid, he remained in the China-Burma-India Theater, where he flew more than fifty combat/bombing missions with the 10th Air Force and later, the 491st Bomb Squadron, aboard B-25's and the Douglas C-47's (Gooney Bird), before returning home in July 1943. For his participation with the 1st Special Aviation Project (Doolittle Tokyo Raider Force), United States Army Air Forces, on April 18, 1942, Lieutenant Richard August "Knobby" Knobloch was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, his citation reading as follows: "The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 2, 1926, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Flying Cross to First Lieutenant (Air Corps) Richard A. Knobloch, United States Army Air Forces, for extraordinary achievement as Co-Pilot of a B-25 Bomber of the 1st Special Aviation Project (Doolittle Raider Force), while participating in a highly destructive raid on the Japanese mainland on 18 April 1942. Lieutenant Knobloch with 79 other officers and enlisted men volunteered for this mission knowing full well that the chances of survival were extremely remote, and executed his part in it with great skill and daring. This achievement reflects high credit on himself and the military service." by General Orders: War Department General Orders No. 65 (1942). In addition, for his additional service in the China-Burma-India Theater, he was awarded "a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster in lieu of a Second Award of the Distinguished Flying Cross for extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight, in action against the enemy during more than 50 bombing missions in the China-Burma-India Theater of Operations during World War II. His devotion to duty and courage under all conditions serve as an inspiration to his fellow flyers. His actions reflect the highest credit upon himself and the Armed Forces of the United States." Knobloch returned to the United States in July 1943 and by August, he had been re-assigned to the Air Proving Ground Command at Eglin Field, near Valparaiso, Florida, where he held successive positions as Assistant Engineering Officer, and later Engineering Officer, with the 27th Sub-Depot, until February 1944. This was followed by service as Chief of the Aircraft Maintenance Branch, Chief of the Ground Test Section, and finally as Chief of the Equipment Section with Air Proving Ground Command from March 1944 to August 1946. He saw service as a test pilot, flying many aircraft, including bombers and fighters. The Second World War having concluded, and now in the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Knobloch began attending Kansas State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (later re-named Kansas State University) at Manhattan, Kansas, beginning in September 1946. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture in June 1947. His next assignment was as Deputy Assistant Chief (Materiel) and then as Director of Maintenance with Headquarters, 12th Air Force at March Air Force Base, California, from August 1947 to January 1949. He was promoted to Colonel, and as a Staff Supply Officer, attended the Royal Air Force Flying College in London, England, as an exchange officer, from January 1949 to December 1950. Upon his return to the United States in December 1950, he was assigned to Headquarters, Ninth Air Force, Pope Air Force Base, North Carolina, as Assistant and later, Deputy for Materiel, from January 1951 to July 1953. This was followed by service as Vice Commander of the 363rd Tactical Reconnaissance Wing at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, from July 1953 to April 1955, flying the Martin B-57 Canberra, an American-built, twinjet tactical bomber and reconnaissance aircraft. Two years later, Colonel Knobloch was assigned to Washington, D.C., as a student in the Strategic Intelligence School and the Foreign Service Institute at Fort Myer, Virgina, in May 1955. He followed this with a stint as Air Attache at the American Embassy in Rome, Italy, from August 1956 to July 1960. He returned to Washington in August 1960, to study at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C., until June 1961, in preparation for duty at Headquarters USAF at the Pentagon. Upon completion of his studies, Knobloch was posted in July 1961 to Headquarters USAF, serving as Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and then, as Chief, Officers Assignment Division, Deputy Chief of Staff, Personnel, until August 1963. He served as Deputy Commander of the United States Air Force Military Personnel Center at Randolph Air Force Base, Texas, from August 1963 to June 1965. He then went to Hawaii, where he was Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, followed by Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans with Headquarters, Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) at Hickam Air Force Base in Pearl Harbor, from June 1965 to July 1968. It was during this period that he was awarded the Legion of Merit for actions during the Vietnam War, "for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding services to the Government of the United States. The singularly distinctive accomplishments of General Knobloch and his dedicated contributions in the service of his country reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force". He remained in Hawaii until August 1968, when he would assume his final assignment, taking Command of the 1st Composite Wing, Headquarters Command, Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. The 1st Air Base Wing was established as the 1st Composite Wing on May 9, 1969 and was activated on July 1, 1969, with Brigadier General Knobloch serving as its first commander, a position he would hold until January 31, 1970. Brigadier General Richard August "Knobby" Knobloch retired from service with the United States Air Force on February 1, 1970. He was subsequently awarded the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, his citation reading: "The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress July 9, 1918, awards the Distinguished Service Medal to Brigadier General Richard A. Knobloch, for exceptionally meritorious service in a duty of great responsibility. General Knobloch distinguished himself as Commander of the 1st Composite Wing, Andrews Air Force Base, from 29 July 1968 to 31 January 1970. Under his superior leadership, the wing successfully accomplished its demanding mission of providing vital support to the United States Air Force, other governmental organizations, and the President of the United States. In meeting these ultimate responsibilities, he provided expert guidance on a wide spectrum of national interest matters, managed his resources most efficiently, and gave selflessly of his time and experience to insure the mission was performed flawlessly. The singularly distinctive accomplishments of General Knobloch culminate a distinguished career in the service of his country, and reflect the highest credit upon himself and the United States Air Force." As a command pilot, he accrued more than 4,200 flying hours and was one of five Doolittle raiders who later became generals: the others are James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, John Allen Hilger, Everett Wayne "Brick" Holstrom and David Mudgett Jones. After serving thirty years in the Air Force, he joined United Technologies Corporation as Vice President and also served on the board of directors of Barclays Bank of New York, as Chairman of the Air Force Salute Foundation, as a Trustee of the College of Aeronautics, as a Member of the Advisory Committee of the Harmon International Trophy, as Chairman and President of the Wings Club of New York City (an organization of pilots and others active in the aviation industry), as Chairman of Doolittle Tokyo Raiders, and as Trustee of the Daedalian Foundation. He was also inducted into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame on October 25, 1997. Knobloch died on August 13, 2001, at the age of 83, his interment taking place on August 16th, with Full Military Honors in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas. He is buried in Section 36, Grave 298, his grave marker inscribed "RICHARD A KNOBLOCH / BRIG GEN / US AIR FORCE / WORLD WAR II / KOREA VIETNAM / MAY 27 1918 / AUG 13 2001 / BELOVED HUSBAND / FATHER GRANDPA". His wife, Rosemary Alma Knobloch, died eight years later, on September 27, 2009 and was buried with him. Brigadier General Richard August "Knobby" Knobloch, United States Army Air Forces, United States Air Force service entailed thirty years, which included service with the U.S. Army (USAAC, USAAF), from 1940 to 1947 and the U.S. Air Force, from 1947 to 1970. Highlighted by the Second World War, from 1941 to 1945, the Cold War, from 1945 to 1970 and the Vietnam War in 1965. During his illustrious career, his awards included the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, Legionnaire Grade with bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Flying Cross with bronze Oak Leaf Cluster, the Air Medal, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Air Force Outstanding Unit Award, the American Defense Service Medal, the American Campaign Medal with bronze Star, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with three bronze Stars, the World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal with bronze Star, the Vietnam Service Medal with bronze Star, the Air Force Longevity Service Award with silver and bronze Oak Leaf Clusters, the Air Force Small Arms Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, the China (Republic): Army, Navy and Air Corps Medal, Class A, 1st Grade, the Italy (Republic): Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, 4th Class, Officer, the Vietnam (Republic): Gallantry Cross Unit Citation with bronze palm, the Vietnam (Republic): South Vietnam Campaign Medal with 1960- clasp and the China (Republic); World War II Victory Commemorative Medal.