Foil: 24 Panel: 4 Column: 2 Line: 8

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Sponsor

Honored by:

Irving L "Twig" BRANCH entered the Air Corps upon graduation from Norwich University, VT in 1935. Early in World War II he became the American co-commander of the Chinese-American Wing flying out of India and China. In 1943 he led the first bombing raid on the Japanese in China (Formosa, Thanksgiving 1943), the first raid on the Japanese after Doolittle's raid on Tokyo. Subsequently Branch served with air intelligence in the European Command; as member of the first military staff committee for the United Nations; as chief of staff of what is now the Defense Atomic Support Agency; and as deputy commander of the Air Force Special Weapons Center. In 1959 he was named commander of the US Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AF Base, California, where he headed the X-15 rocket aircraft program and the first test flight of the experimental B-70 supersonic bomber. He died on active duty on January 2, 1966 when his plane crashed in when flying to Boeing Field, Seattle, Washington.