George Howard Brett (7 February 1886 – 2 December 1963) was a United States Army Air Forces General during World War II.

[2] George's older brother Morgan graduated with the United States Military Academy at West Point class of 1906, and served for many years as an ordnance officer, retiring in 1932 as a colonel.

The family was unable to secure a second West Point appointment, so George Brett graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1909 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Philippine Scouts on 22 March 1910.

[4] Brett departed for the Western Front in November 1917 but suffered a case of appendicitis, resulting in the loss of his flight status.

After making a partial recovery, he served in France as senior materiel officer under Brigadier General Billy Mitchell,[6] attaining the temporary rank of major on 7 June 1918.

His first son, the future United States Air Force Lieutenant General Devol "Rock" Brett, was born at nearby Letterman Army Hospital at the Presidio of San Francisco in 1923.

He was briefly stationed in Menlo Park, California, before moving to Langley, Virginia, where he became chief of staff to his old friend Frank Andrews, now the commander of GHQ Air Force.

Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder noted that "the charms of General Brett’s company were beginning to pall.

[11] The outbreak of war between the United States and Japan in December 1941 changed things and Brett received new orders.

He first flew to Rangoon and then, in the company of the Sir Archibald Wavell, the British Commander-in-Chief, India, on to Chungking where the two met with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

Brett received warning from the Chief of Staff, General George Marshall that MacArthur would call on him to send a flight of long-range bombers to Mindanao.

The only aircraft that Brett could find were B-17s of the 19th Bombardment Group which had seen hard service in the Philippines and the Dutch East Indies campaigns.

Brett approached Vice Admiral Herbert F. Leary, the commander of naval forces in the Anzac Area, to ask for a loan of some of twelve newly arrived navy B-17s.

Only one, a B-17 with no brakes piloted by Lieutenant Harl Pease, made it to Mindanao; two turned back with engine trouble, while a fourth ditched in the sea, its crew managing to escape.

A message from Washington, D.C. persuaded Leary to release four new B-17s to Brett and these aircraft reached Mindanao on 16 March 1942 and managed to bring MacArthur and his party to Australia.

[21] Henceforth, communications with Sutherland would be handled by Brett's chief of staff, Air Vice Marshal William Bostock.

The day before, MacArthur awarded him the Silver Star "for gallantry in action in air reconnaissance in the combat zone, Southwest Pacific Area, during the months of May, June and July 1942.

He reported to Marshall that most of the charges were distortions of mission-related events and expenditures, that the remaining allegations had no basis in fact, and that no further action be taken.

The citation noted "his broad grasp of military strategy and superior knowledge of air and ground tactics" and that "he succeeded admirably in impressing the republics of Central and South America with the importance and necessity of hemispheric solidarity, imbued them with American ideals, coordinated their use of arms and equipment and indoctrinated them with American training methods – all of which fostered continued improvement in the relations between all America republics.

[26] The B-17D, The Swoose, which Brett used extensively for his personal transport during World War II, and which he often piloted, is today the oldest, intact, surviving B-17 Flying Fortress and the only "D" model still in existence.