A leader in the early days of the US Air Force, he was a renowned expert in tactical nuclear warfare, NATO, and military long range planning.

He joined the expanding US Army Air Forces attending pilot training schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Randolph and Kelly fields, Texas, graduating in June 1940.

In April 1942, he took command of the 1st Composite Squadron, a unit of 18 P-39 Airacobras pursuit aircraft and five B-25 Mitchell bombers being organized at Key Field, Meridian, Mississippi.

Wideawake Airfield was a key refueling base on the only air resupply route in 1942–1943 connecting the United States to the Allied Western Desert Campaign raging in North Africa and the Soviet forces through the Persian Gulf and the Caucuses.

[2] On early 15 September 1942, while senior operations officer at Ascension, Captain Richardson was notified by the island's British liaison that RMS Laconia had been torpedoed.

Later that night at about 10 p.m., Richardson was asked to assist in rescue efforts by providing air cover for the en route merchant ships, the nearby Empire Haven and HMS Corinthian at Takoorida.

The next day a transiting B-24D Liberator from the 343rd Bombardment Squadron was sent to investigate and found four U-boats displaying the Red Cross flag engaged in rescue operations from the sinking of Laconia.

The senior officer on duty that day, Captain Robert C. Richardson III, who claimed later that he did not know that this was a Red Cross-sanctioned German rescue operation, ordered the B-24 to "sink the sub".

In March 1943, Richardson was ordered back to the United States as the project officer and flight leader to make good his boast that he could ferry P-38 Lightnings to North Africa via the South Atlantic.

He spent the first month touring European fighter units briefing them on what he learned from flying the XP-59A, Airacomet, and on suggested tactics to use against the new German jet aircraft.

He then served as an action officer in General Carl Spaatz's headquarters in London and Paris through December 1944 where he coordinated what new equipment and weapons coming from the CONUS based Army Force Board with what the European combat units said they needed and experienced.

He led the unit in their support of the General Patton's final push into Germany then transitioned the P-47 Thunderbolt fighter group from wartime to peacetime operations.

Upon creation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation in 1949, newly promoted Colonel Richardson became the first Air Force planner on the NATO Standing Group.

In July 1953, he was assigned to the Plans Staff of the Air Deputy, SHAPE, when responsibility for US military advice to the European Defense Community was transferred from the US Ambassador to the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

Richardson retired from active duty on 1 August 1967 and began his second career as a writer, lecturer, and consultant on defense issues, nuclear strategy, and aerospace technology management.

In 1981, Richardson teamed up with Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham on a Heritage Foundation project called High Frontier to formulate a long-term national strategy and plan to build a US space-based missile defense.