This Day in Aviation History

September 26, 1947
General Carl A. Spaatz becomes the first Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force.

Born as Carl Andrew Spatz, he added the second “a” in 1937 at the request of his wife and daughters to clarify the pronunciation of the name, as many pronounced it “spats”. He added the second “a” to draw it out to sound like “ah”, like the “a” in “father”. (The name is thus correctly pronounced “spots”.) The result was intended to suggest a Dutch rather than a German origin.

Spaatz received his nickname “Tooey” at West Point because of his resemblance to another red-headed cadet named F.J. Toohey. He graduated as a second lieutenant of Infantry 12 June 1914, ranked 97th out of a class of 107. He served with the 25th Infantry at Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, until his assignment to the Signal Corps Aviation School at San Diego, California,…..

Wikipedia, Carl Andrew Spaatz: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Andrew_Spaatz

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