LaVerne George Saunders (21 March 1903 – 16 November 1988) was a brigadier general in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.

In 1944 he commanded the 58th Bombardment Wing, and he led the bombing mission against Yawata, the first attack on Japan since the Doolittle Raid in 1942.

[1][2] He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1924,[3] and secured an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, which he entered on 1 July 1924.

His matches included the 1924 13-7 loss to the University of Notre Dame that prompted Grantland Rice to describe the latter's offensive backfield as the Four Horsemen, and 21-all tie against the Navy team played in front of over 100,000 fans at Chicago's Soldier Field.

[6][7] Saunders graduated for West Point on 9 June 1928, ranked 214th in the class, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Infantry.

[4] After service with the 2d Bombardment Group at Langley Field, Virginia, Saunders returned to West Point as Assistant Coach of the football team,[8] along with Russell Reeder, known as "Red".

[10] He was unable to intercept the Tokyo Express, for his aircraft had to first make the 640 miles (1,030 km) flight to Guadalcanal, by which time the Japanese ships were out of range.

He helped the crew inflate rafts and they paddled to Vella Lavella, where they were rescued by an Australian coastwatcher, who sheltered them and arranged for a Navy PBY Catalina flying boat to collect them the following day.

This wing, under the command of Brigadier General Kenneth B. Wolfe, was the first to be equipped with the new Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber.

[19] He stayed on for several more weeks to assist LeMay before returning to the United States to assume command of another B-29 wing.

[7][20][21] For his services in China-Burma-India he was awarded the Air Medal and the Legion of Merit with an oak leaf cluster.

He returned to Aberdeen, South Dakota, where he was the district manager of the Rushmore Mutual Life Insurance Company and the President of Saunders Motor Sales.