Hoyt Jr. would never have made Major if his last name wasn’t “Vandenberg”.
“Hoyt Jr. would never have made Major if his last name wasn’t ‘Vandenberg’.” [DuncanWaring, post 45]
You have a gift for understatement.
I harbor doubts that if he hadn’t been the son of Hoyt S Vandenberg Sr, he’d never have gotten that appointment to USMA.
Hoyt Jr was quite savvy. He married the daughter of Leon Johnson, the commander of 44BG who fearlessly countermanded his lead nav on 1 August 1943, during the epic low level attack against the oilfields near Ploesti. The nav was right and Leon was wrong, but he ordered the bomber stream to turn anyway. Much higher attrition and lower strike success. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.
In 1976, Hoyt Jr was assigned to the the MAAG in Iran. They kicked him out of the country. I’ve never learned why.