Dean B. Yount Fifteenth Air Force Photo Albums

This collection consists of two small photo albums created by the 1st Combat Camera Unit, US Army Air Forces, probably for Major General Nathan F. Twining, Commanding General Fifteenth Air Force, and his staff: one relates to General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold's visit to Fifteenth Air Force commanders in Italy in April 1945; the other is a memory book possibly created as a present for Twining circa June 1945 at the conclusion of his command of the Fifteenth Air Force. Also included is a portrait photograph by Fabian Bachrach of Major Dean B. Yount, Aide to General Twining, and a certificate for crossing the Arctic Circle issued to Yount in May 1950.

During World War II, most of the US Army Air Forces' combat units were assigned to numbered air forces. The Fifteenth Air Force, activated in the Mediterranean theater of operations on November 1, 1943, under the command of Major General James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle, was primarily engaged in strategic bombarding of targets in Italy, France, Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, and the Balkans. In January 1944, Doolittle was assigned command of the Eighth Air Force in England, relinquishing command of the Fifteenth Air Force (15AF), based in Bari, Italy, to Major General Nathan F. Twining (1897--1982). In addition to his duties as commander of 15AF, Twining soon became head of the Mediterranean Allied Strategic Air Forces. Major Dean Burdette Yount, born in Tonkawa, Oklahoma, in 1910, served as an aide to General Twining throughout the war. Yount, later promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, was a relative of Lt. General Barton K. Yount, wartime head of the US Army Air Forces Training Command. General Twining served as Commander in Chief of the Alaskan Air Command from October 1947 to July 1950.