US Air Force General. He was the former commander of the Air Force Logistics Command (now Air Force Materiel Command), headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Born in Montana, he moved with his family to Chicago, Illinois when he was a child. In 1930 he graduated from Saint Leo High School in Chicago, Tilden Tech, and the Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology), also in Chicago. In 1939 he entered the US Army as an aviation cadet, completed his flying school in May 1940, and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant in the US Army Air Corps Reserves. He was assigned to the 15th Bombardment Squadron at Barksdale Field (now Barksdale Air Force Base), Louisiana, and in October 1940 he was transferred to the 17th Bombardment Squadron at Savannah Field (now Hunter Army Airfield), Georgia. While stationed at Savannah, he attended Armstrong Junior College. In October 1941 he was assigned to the 17th Bombardment Squadron in the Philippine Islands, serving in the Air Ground Support Section of the Luzon Forces, and in February 1942 he joined the 21st Pursuit Squadron at Bataan, and two months later he transferred to the 13th Bombardment Squadron in Australia. He assumed command of the 90th Bombardment Squadron on New Guinea in August 1942, flying 49 combat missions as a bomber pilot during this period. In November 1942 he returned to the US where he was assigned to the Army Air Forces Materiel Command at Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base), Dayton, Ohio, as project officer on B-25, B-26, B-29, B-32, YB-35 and B-36 bombardment aircraft. During this assignment he attended the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. After graduation in October 1945 he resumed his former position at Wright Field, and in January 1946 became the Chief of the Bomber Branch in the Aircraft and Missile Section. While in this position, he attended the advanced management course at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In March 1950 he assumed command of the 11th Bombardment Group, Strategic Air Command, at Carswell Air Force Base (now Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth), Texas, and in March 1953 he was transferred to Headquarters Air Force, Washington, DC, and became the director of procurement and production engineering in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Materiel, and later was named assistant for production programming in the same office. In August 1957 he was transferred to the Air Materiel Command and assumed command of the Oklahoma City Air Materiel Area at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. In July 1960 he was appointed commander of the Ballistic Missile Center of the Air Materiel Command at Los Angeles, California. As a result of the reorganization of the Air Research and Development Command and the Air Materiel Command into the Air Force Systems Command in April 1961, he became the first commander of the Ballistic Systems Division in Inglewood, California. In July 1962 he became the Deputy Chief of Staff for Systems and Logistics at Headquarters Air Force, Washington, DC. He also served as senior Air Force member, Military Staff Committee, United Nations. In August 1967 he was promoted to the rank of general and became the Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force Logistics Command (now Air Force Materiel Command) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He died suddenly of a heart attack at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base while serving in this position on February 24, 1968 at the age of 54. He served continuously in the US Army Air Corps and US Air Force for 29 years. Among his military decorations and awards include the Air Force Distinguished Service Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Silver Star, the Air Medal with oak leaf cluster, Army Commendation Medal, and the Purple Heart. He received an honorary Doctor of Humanities Degree from the University of Tulsa, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Thomas P. Gerrity Award, an annual Air Force Association National Award given for outstanding contribution in systems and logistics, was named in his honor.