Robin Olds (1922-2007) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

BG Robin Olds

Born 14 Jul 1922 in Honolulu, Hawaii

Ancestors

Son of Robert Olds and [mother unknown]

Brother of Fred Olds and Sterling Meigs Olds

[spouse(s) unknown]

Father of Christina Olds and Susan Olds

Died 14 Jun 2007 at age 84 in Steamboat Springs, Routt, Colorado, United States

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Profile last modified 24 Jun 2024 | Created 29 Jun 2018

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Brigadier General Robin Olds served in the United States Air Force in the Vietnam War
Service started:
Unit(s):
Service ended:

Robin Olds is Notable.

1 Biography
2 Accomplishments
3 Family
4 Military Experience
5 Retirement
6 Reputation
7 Death
8 Honors
9 Sources

Biography

Robin Olds. ^[1]

Born 14 JUL 1922. Honolulu, Hawaii. ^[2]

Died 14 JUN 2007. ^[3]

Accomplishments

National Aviation Hall of Fame class of 2001,
Triple Ace-Achieved ace status as a fighter pilot during World War II by shooting down 13 enemy aircraft in 107 combat mission and destroyed 11 ½ aircraft on the ground, and scored four more aerial victories in Vietnam.
First American to command a British Royal Air Force Squadron.
Came in 2nd in the jet division of the Thompson Trophy Race in Cleveland in 1946.
In 1966 he became commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing in Thailand and downed 2 MIG-17s and 2 MIG-21s.
Commandant of Cadets at the Air Force Academy in 1967.
Helped start America’s first jet aerobatic team, the Thunderbirds^[4]

Family

General Olds was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on July 14, 1922, the son of Maj. Gen. Robert and Mrs. Eloise Olds. He was was briefly a stepbrother of author Gore Vidal after Olds' father married for the fourth time in June 1942, to Nina Gore Auchincloss. His father died of pneumonia on April 28, 1943, after hospitalization for constrictive pericarditis and Libman-Sacks endocarditis, at the age of 46, just prior to Olds' graduation from West Point.

In 1946, while based at March Field, Olds met Hollywood actress (and "pin-up girl") Ella Raines on a blind date in Palm Springs. They married in Beverly Hills on February 6, 1947, and had two daughters, Christina and Susan, and a son,Robert Ernest, who was stillborn in 1958. Most of their 29-year marriage, marked by frequent extended separations and difficult homecomings, was turbulent because of a clash of lifestyles, particularly her refusal to ever live in government housing on base. Robin Olds and Ella Raines separated in 1975 and divorced in 1976. Robin married Abigail Morgan Sellers Barnett in January 1978, and they divorced after fifteen years of marriage.

He had two daughters, Christina Olds of Vail, Colo., and Susan Scott-Risner of North Bend, Wash.; one granddaughter, Jennifer Newman of Santa Monica, Calif., and half-brother, Fred Olds of Virginia.

Military Experience

He spent his younger years in Hampton, Va., and attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he was an All-American tackle. He graduated in 1943 as a second lieutenant. Following graduation from pilot training in 1943, General Olds was assigned to the European Theater at the end of World War II, where he flew 107 combat missions. "He was assigned to the first jet P-80 squadron in 1946."

He was a member of the first jet Aerial Acrobatic Demonstration Team; won second place in the Thompson Trophy Race, jet division, in Cleveland, in 1946; and participated in the first dawn-to-dusk transcontinental round trip flight. He was a squadron commander of Royal Air Force No.1 Fighter Squadron, Sussex, England, during an exchange tour in 1948.

During the Vietnam War, he flew 152 combat missions in the F-4 Phantom as the wing commander of the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing at Ubon Air Base, Thailand. General Olds' exploits as the creator and mission commander of Operation Bolo, the most successful aerial battle of the Vietnam War, has been documented in the recent History Channel Dogfights Special series "Air Ambush."

His duty assignments in England, Germany, Libya, Thailand, and the United States have included positions as squadron, base, group and wing commander, staff assignments in a numbered Air Force, Headquarters U.S. Air Force and the Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He is a 1963 graduate of the National War College.^[5]

After his duty in Vietnam, General Olds was named commandant of cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy from 1967 to 1971. His last assignment before retiring from the Air Force in 1973 was as director of safety for the Air Force.

Retirement

In his retirement at Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Olds pursued his love of skiing and served on the city's planning commission. He was active in public speaking, making 21 events as late in his life as 2005 and 13 in 2006.

Reputation

Olds' fondness for alcohol was well-known. John Darrell Sherwood, in his book Fast Movers: Jet Pilots and the Vietnam Experience, posits that Olds' heavy drinking hurt his post-Vietnam career. On July 12, 2001, Olds was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and resisting arrest near his home in Steamboat Springs. Olds, briefly hospitalized during the incident for facial cuts, plead guilty in return for charges of weaving and felony vehicular eluding being dropped. Olds was placed on one year probation, and ordered to pay almost $900 in fines and costs, attend an alcohol education course, and perform 72 hours of community service^[6].

Olds is credited with starting the tradition of Mustache March when he grew his "bulletproof" mustache in March 1965, inspiring others to follow his example. "Generals visiting Vietnam would kind of laugh at the mustache," Halvorsen quotes Olds as saying. "I was far away from home. It was a gesture of defiance. The kids on base loved it. Most everybody grew a mustache."

Olds' airmen may have gotten a kick out of it, but former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John McConnell did not. When Olds returned home and had his first interview with McConnell, Olds said, "he walked up to me, stuck a finger under my nose and said, 'Take it off!' And I said, 'Yes, sir!' And that was the end of that."

But the legend didn't die. Airmen continued growing mustaches of varying degrees of regulation compliance. And when Olds was promoted to brigadier general and named commandant of cadets at the Air Force Academy in 1968, his new cadets gave him an appropriate welcome.

"I chuckled as we entered Mitchell Hall between rows of cadets at attention wearing fake mustaches," Olds wrote of his first day at the academy in his posthumously-published memoir, "Fighter Pilot." "I stared fiercely into the eyes of several cadets. These guys were already my kids."^[7]

Death

On the evening of June 14, 2007, General Olds died from congestive heart failure in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Olds was honored with a flyover and services at the United States Air Force Academy on June 30, where his ashes will be kept. General Olds will also be remembered as the Class Exemplar of the Academy Class of 2011, which had begun Basic Cadet Training, the first step towards becoming Air Force officers, two days before Olds' funeral.

Honors

On July 21, 2001, Olds was enshrined at Dayton, Ohio, in the National Aviation Hall of Fame class of 2001, along with test pilot Joseph H. Engle, Marine Corps ace Marion E. Carl, and Albert Lee Ueltschi. He became the only person enshrined in both the National Aviation Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame.

General Olds' military decorations include the Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Medal, Silver Star with three oak leaf clusters, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross with five oak leaf clusters, Air Medal with 39 oak leaf clusters, British Distinguished Flying Cross, French Croix de Guerre, Vietnam Air Force Distinguished Service Order, Vietnam Air Gallantry Medal with gold wings, and Vietnam Air Service Medal.