Frank
Pleasants Sturdivant, born June 6, 1917, in Memphis,
Tennessee, is a descendent of pioneer Mississippi
Delta families who came to the Delta in the 1850's
and settled in the Glendora-Minter City area. He is
the son of Archibald Young Sturdivant and Bessie Pleasants
Sturdivant. They and their families have been cotton
farmers for almost a century and a half. Frank had
one brother, the late Archibald Young Sturdivant,
Jr., and a sister, Mildred Sturdivant McKee, who now
resides in Carmel, California. Frank grew up in Glendora,
attended a two-room school through the grammar grades
and then went to high schools in Webb and Greenwood,
both in Mississippi. He graduated from Greenwood High
School in 1933 at the age of fifteen. He was very
involved in Boy Scouts and won his Eagle Scout award
at age fourteen. He attended the University as an
engineering student in 1933-34 and was a member of
the Sigma Chi fraternity. Sturdivant also won the
coveted freshman Honorary Society membership in Phi
Eta Sigma.
A
military career had always appealed to Frank and while
at "Ole Miss" he was selected for appointment to the
United States Military Academy from the 2nd congressional
district of Mississippi, In July 1934, he entered
West Point and began the four longest and most difficult
years of his life. Although he considered himself
less than an exceptional student, he managed to improve
his scholarly standing well enough by graduation time
to rank 89 out of a class of 301. As a Second Lieutenant
he was assigned to the Air Corps Flying School at
Randolph Field, Texas. After an exciting year of flying,
he graduated as a pilot in 1939 at Kelly Field, San
Antonio, Texas. War was in the air and he was given
an assignment, disappointingly to him, as instructor
at the Air Corps Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field,
also in San Antonio.
It
was during this stage of his life that he met his
future wife, Dorothy Davenport Samuels. Following
a long-range courtship involving many cross-country
flights from San Antonio to Memphis, they were finally
married in 1940 and settled in San Antonio. Frank
was in the initial cadre of flying training officers
who, during the next few years, opened bases all over
the United States. He moved to the Western Training
Command and was cadre for six new airfields. During
these busy years he advanced quickly from Second Lieutenant
to Lieutenant Colonel. Somehow, Dorothy had managed
to make a home for them at every one of these stations
- all situated in out-of-the-way places. Their housing
facilities ranged from a single room in a boarding
house to a converted henry. Dorothy Jane was born
to them in 1942 in Tulare, California. It was a difficult
life for a family but they endured in this manner
until Frank was sent to the Pacific in 1944.
In
1943, he transferred to heavy bombers, training B-17
crews at Pyote, Texas up until the time the crews
flew out to England. Finally in mid-1944, he left
the training phase and was assigned to a B-29 Bomb
Group as Deputy Group Commander. Six months later
in January of 1945, the 39th Group began movement
to Guam in the Marinas Islands to participate in the
aerial assault of Japan. In July, he was promoted
to Colonel and became the 20th Air Force liaison officer
in Tokyo during and after the signing of the Japanese
surrender in September 1945. Being a regular Army
officer, he was not allowed to return home during
demobilization, but instead was transferred to the
Philippines in various air operations assignments,
culminating in his elevation to commander of the 6th
Bomb Group of B-29's at Clark Field. At last in 1946,
his family was able to join him and they remained
together in the Philippines until 1948.
There
followed interesting assignments to Air Force Headquarters,
The Air War College, Staff Air Command and Staff School,
and to the National War College. It was during this
time that their son, Thomas Rogers Sturdivant, was
born.
Staff
assignments seemed inevitable although he yearned
for a combat unit command. After several months of
cajoling everyone he knew, he left the War College
for assignment to the Strategic Air Command as Base
Commander of Forbes Air Force Base, Topeka, Kansas.
His next transfer was to Alaska as SAC liaison officer
for six months. His hopes and aspirations were finally
realized when, in 1953, he was named Commander of
the 341st Bomb Wing of B-47 aircraft at Dyess Air
Force Base, Abilene, Texas. This came at a crucial
time when SAC was attaining an intercontinental nuclear
bombing capability and the B-47, a six-engine jet
bomber, was the only one with atomic weaponry that
the United States had. It was equipped for in-flight
refueling and remained the backbone of this country's
nuclear delivery capability during the Cold War of
the 1950's. Training this Wing of B-47's was, perhaps,
Frank's most challenging yet fulfilling assignment.
In
1957, still at Abilene, he took command of the 819th
Air Division, which consisted of two Wings of B-47
aircraft, the Base Squadron and other assorted support
units. This to Frank was the culmination of many years
of persistence and hard work and was a most satisfying
assignment.
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