Haywood S. Hansell

Haywood Shepherd Hansell, Jr.
Major General Haywood S. Hansell Jr.
Nickname(s)	Possum
Born	(1903-09-28)September 28, 1903 Fort Monroe, Virginia
Died	November 14, 1988(1988-11-14) (aged 85) Hilton Head, South Carolina
Buried at	United States Air Force Academy Cemetery
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Air Force
Years of service	1928–1946 1951–1955
Rank	Major General
Commands held	3rd Bombardment Wing 1st Bombardment Wing XXI Bomber Command
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Distinguished Service Medal Silver Star Legion of Merit Distinguished Flying Cross Air Medal

Haywood Shepherd Hansell Jr. (September 28, 1903 – November 14, 1988) was a general officer in the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) during World War II, and later the United States Air Force. He became an advocate of the doctrine of strategic bombardment, and was one of the chief architects of the concept of daylight precision bombing that governed the use of airpower by the USAAF in the war.

Hansell played a key and largely unsung role in the strategic planning of air operations by the United States. This included drafting both the strategic air war plans (AWPD-1 and AWPD-42) and the plan for the Combined Bomber Offensive in Europe; obtaining a base of operations for the B-29 Superfortress in the Mariana Islands; and devising the command structure of the Twentieth Air Force, the first global strategic air force and forerunner of the Strategic Air Command. He made precision air attack, as both the most humane and effective means of achieving military success, a lifelong personal crusade that eventually became the key tenet of American airpower employment.

Hansell also held combat commands during the war, carrying out the very plans and doctrines he helped draft. He pioneered strategic bombardment of both Germany and Japan, as commander of the first B-17 Flying Fortress combat wing in Europe, and as the first commander of the B-29 force in the Marianas.

Hansell was born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, on September 28, 1903, the son of First Lieutenant (later Colonel) Haywood S. Hansell, an Army surgeon, and Susan Watts Hansell, both considered members of the "southern aristocracy" from Georgia. His great-great-great-grandfather John W. Hansell served in the American Revolution, his great-great-grandfather William Young Hansell was an officer in the War of 1812, and his great-grandfather Andrew Jackson Hansell was a general in the Confederate States Army and Georgia's adjutant general. His grandfather, William Andrew Hansell, graduated from Georgia Military Institute and also served as an officer in the Confederate Army, first in the 35th Alabama, then as a topographical engineer.