[2] Vandenberg was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the son of Pearl Kane and William Collins Vandenbergh, both from Dutch ancestry.

Two months later he enrolled in the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; he completed the course in June 1936 and was promoted to the rank of captain.

In September 1939 and the autumn of 1940, Vandenberg developed two air plans for the Philippine Department, the second based on Royal Air Force interceptor operations in the Battle of Britain, but neither was adopted by the War Department when the Roosevelt Administration reaffirmed its long-standing opposition to any plan that called for extensive reinforcement of the defenses in the Philippines.

A few months after the United States entered World War II, Vandenberg was promoted to colonel and became operations and training officer of the Air Staff.

On February 18, 1943, Vandenberg became the chief of staff of the Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF), which was under the command of Major General James Doolittle.

NASAF was the strategic arm of the new Northwest African Air Forces (NAAF) under Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz.

Even when Vandenberg was at the pinnacle of his military career, his boyish good looks and outgoing personality often made him the target of attacks on his credibility and experience.

On April 30, 1948, Vandenberg became the Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, succeeding General Carl Spaatz.

Vandenberg maintained that the cut backed by Wilson would reduce military aviation to a "one-shot Air Force," inferior to that of the Soviet Union.

Vandenberg retired from active duty on June 30, 1953, and he died nine months later, at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center of prostate cancer at the age of 55.

[9] His wife, Gladys Merritt (Rose) Vandenberg (1898–1978), started the concept of the Arlington Ladies while he was Air Force Chief of Staff.

In July 1963, the instrument ship USNS General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10) was renamed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, for duty on the Eastern Space and Missile Range in the Atlantic.

Sources:[1][12] Command Pilot The Manuscript Collection of Hoyt S. Vandenberg at the Library of Congress as of November 2005 is Classified information.