Uzal Girard Ent
| Uzal Girard Ent | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 3, 1900 |
| Died | 5 March 1948 (aged 48) |
| Allegiance |
 United States
|
| Service/branch | United States Army Air Forces |
| Years of service | 1917–1946 |
| Rank |
 Major general
|
| Commands held |
Ninth Air Force Second Air Force |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
Uzal Girard Ent was an American Army Air Forces officer who served as the commander of the Second Air Force during World War II.
Ent was born on March 3, 1900, in Northumberland, Pennsylvania. He served in the infantry from 1917 to 1919, and was commissioned into the US Air Service from West Point in 1924.
On May 28, 1928 he was the co-pilot of a balloon in the National Balloon Race starting at Bettis Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During the race, Ent's balloon was struck by lightning over Youngstown, Pennsylvania. The lighting strike killed the pilot and set the balloon's hydrogen filled envelope on fire. Ent could have parachuted to safety but, instead, chose to stay with the balloon, attempted to rescue the pilot and successfully piloted the balloon to the ground. For this act of heroism, Ent was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross later that year.
After graduating from the Command and General Staff College in 1938 he served as a military attaché at the American Embassy, Lima, Peru from July 1939 until October 1942, acting as the senior neutral military observer on the Peruvian side after their boundary war with Ecuador.
He was Chief of Staff to the U.S. Army Forces in the Middle East from October 1942 until February 1943. He then served as Commanding General, 9th Bomber Command, 9th Air Force from February to December 1943, and led 178 B-24s in "Operation Tidal Wave" — the bombing raid on the oil fields at Ploieşti, Romania, on August 1, 1943 — before being appointed Chief of Staff and then Commanding General, 2nd Air Force, based at Colorado Springs, Colorado. In September 1944, it was General Ent who selected Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tibbets to put together an organisation and train them to drop atomic weapons from B-29 bombers. Given Tibbets and two other names by General Arnold, General Ent replied without hesitation, "Paul Tibbets is the man to do it."
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