Brigadier General Richard Elmer Ellsworth (July 18, 1911 – March 18, 1953)[1] was a United States Air Force commander during the early part of the Cold War.

In 1931 he was accepted into the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) and after graduation in June 1935, he underwent pilot training as a second lieutenant at Randolph and Kelly fields in San Antonio, Texas.

Beginning in July 1943, as commander of the Tenth Weather Region, he flew more than 400 combat missions in the China-Burma-India Theater, logging a total of 780 hours for the 10th and 14th Air Forces.

Retired squadron maintenance officers at the base remember Ellsworth as an unusual, hands-on commander, who would sometimes assist mechanics working late into the night in efforts to ready aircraft.

The picture was shot on-location in western South Dakota, using Lakota Indians from a nearby reservation to portray the Native Americans.

On March 18, 1953, Ellsworth was co-piloting a Convair RB-36H Peacemaker bomber on a 25-hour journey as part of a simulated combat mission flying from Lajes, Azores back to the Rapid City base.

[3] As part of their exercise, the bomber's crew was observing radio silence and had switched off their radar guidance, flying via celestial navigation.

The aircraft's propellers severed the tops of pine trees while the plane's left wing hit the ground, tore off, and spilled fuel.