Ennis Whitehead
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Ennis Clement Whitehead was an early United States Army aviator and a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II. Whitehead joined the U. S. Army after the United States entered World War I in 1917. He trained as an aviator and served in France, where he was posted to the 3d Aviation Instruction Center and became a qualified test pilot. After the war, Whitehead returned to school at the University of Kansas. After he graduated, he was commissioned as a first lieutenant in 1920.
Pan American Flyers receive Distinguished Service Cross certificates from President Calvin Coolidge (center) on May 2, 1927. Herbert Dargue on the left; Whitehead is second from the left.
Major General Whitehead, New Guinea, 1943
South West Pacific Area
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South West Pacific Area (SWPA) was the name given to the Allied supreme military command in the South West Pacific Theatre of World War II. It was one of four major Allied commands in the Pacific War. SWPA included the Philippines, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, East Timor, Australia, the Territories of Papua and New Guinea, and the western part of the Solomon Islands. It primarily consisted of United States and Australian forces, although Dutch, Filipino, British, and other Allied forces also served in the SWPA.
General Douglas MacArthur and Australian Prime Minister John Curtin.
Command Organization, Southwest Pacific Area, July 1943
Royal Australian Air Force chief, Air Vice Marshal George Jones (left) meeting the Allied air forces commander in the SWPA, Lieutenant General George Kenney (right) in mid-1945, in Manila.
Allied Naval Forces SWPA, commander Vice Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid (centre left) with MacArthur (centre) on 28 February 1944 on USS Phoenix during the bombardment of Los Negros Island, at the commencement of the Admiralty Islands campaign.