After the war, Oakes was sent to study at the Army Command and General Staff College in 1945, graduating in 1946.

[1][2][3][4][5] Promoted to brigadier general in 1952, Oakes commanded the 25th Infantry Division Artillery in the Korean War from October 1953 to July 1954.

Promoted to lieutenant general on 1 November 1959, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations until 19 January 1961.

His older brother Calvin Hawley Oakes (7 August 1904 – 18 July 1991) served as a foreign service officer from 1930 to 1946 and as a Southeast Asian specialist for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1947 to 1955.

[4][5] Their son John Hawley Oakes (30 March 1934 – 23 May 2012) was a 1956 Military Academy graduate and artillery officer who retired from the Army as a colonel.