In 1920, he was awarded the Mackay Trophy and the Distinguished Flying Cross for leading a squadron of U.S. airmen on a pioneering air voyage from New York City to Nome, Alaska and back.

[4] With victory certain, Streett returned to the United States to organize for Arnold the Continental Air Forces (CAF), and then to expand its operation across the country.

After retiring from the United States Air Force in 1952, Streett was named to the Sarnoff Commission, a presidential formation tasked with trimming unnecessary military spending.

In December 1916, Streett signed up as an aviation cadet and was trained at the Curtis School at Newport News, Virginia and at Wright Field in Ohio.

[12] Dubbed the Black Wolf Squadron for the logo painted on the fuselage sides of their four De Havilland DH-4B biplanes, the eight men flew 9,349 miles (15,000 km) round trip in 112 hours of flying time, dividing the route into 18 legs across the northern United States and the western provinces of Canada, then north to Fairbanks, Alaska via Dawson City, Yukon.

"[14] For this pioneering effort demonstrating that Alaska could be linked by air to the United States, Streett was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross[8] and the Mackay Trophy, the later given to the "most meritorious flight of the year" made by a U.S. military airman.

Mitchell sent Streett to Air Corps headquarters to inform his superior Charles T. Menoher that the battleships could not be sunk as planned, with the bombers flying at 10,000 feet (3,000 m).

About the stunt, Streett wrote an article entitled "14th Heavy Bombardment Squadron Attacks New York City" for the Army and Navy aviation magazine U.S. Air Service.

[4] Flying an Army Orenco D on November 27, 1920, Streett finished in fourth place in the first Pulitzer Trophy Air Race, held at Mitchel Field on Long Island.

In this role he helped gather prevailing weather data, airfield locations, maps and reports of flying conditions for the Air Corps men undertaking the first aerial circumnavigation during March–September 1924.

[8] With frozen controls, Streett was unable to reduce altitude or to turn off the engine until some twenty minutes later when it ran out of fuel, after which he piloted the fragile experimental biplane down in a gentle glide and made a deadstick landing.

When United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) Chief of Staff Henry H. "Hap" Arnold proposed to George Marshall in October 1942 that an Army man be named supreme commander for the whole Allied effort in the Pacific, suggesting Douglas MacArthur, Lesley McNair or airman Joseph T. McNarney for the position, Marshall without comment passed the request to his staff for analysis.

Streett, too, was in favor of one supreme commander but he recognized the political challenges—he projected that the president would have to make the appointment, not a committee of military men prone to interservice rivalry.

For supreme commander in the Pacific, Streett suggested McNarney or Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, depending on whether an air or a naval strategy was considered most important.

[22] In November 1942, Arnold assigned Streett to take charge of the Third Air Force, a medium bomber training command based at Tampa, Florida.

[23]) Streett implemented a tightening of training policy to reduce losses through human error, and he initiated research into solutions for the technical problems the bomber was having.

USAAF Captain Robert Dyer, charged with protecting the country's airmen from venereal disease (VD), had no success getting Tampa authorities to address the problem.

[24] When Streett arrived at his command and saw the extent of the VD crisis at MacDill Field, he threatened to close certain areas of Tampa to all military personnel if the city's police were unable to curb prostitution.

This action would have ruined a number of legitimate local businesses, and a campaign was initiated to arrest prostitutes and to bar unmarried couples from renting a room together.

In response to complaints from Streett and other military leaders, in January 1943 Florida's Department of Health mounted a statewide media blitz encouraging testing and treatment for VD.

[4] In January 1944, he was assigned to the Southwest Pacific Area and assumed command of the Thirteenth Air Force when it was consolidated into an offensive stance in June.

At the end of September and in early October, Streett mounted a series of 2,500-mile (4,000 km) round trip air raids by heavy bombers flying from Hollandia, New Guinea to attack Balikpapan, a major center of Japanese petroleum processing and storage.

Defense Secretary Robert A. Lovett established the commission for the purpose of identifying and eliminating excess military spending without reducing combat effectiveness.

"[29] The Sarnoff Commission's 85-page report was delivered to the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services and Charles Erwin Wilson, President Dwight D. Eisenhower's new defense secretary, on February 17, 1953.

Besides serving in combat in Korea, and in South Vietnam as an advisor, St. Clair Jr. had participated in the US Army Corps of Engineer construction projects for NASA (in the race to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade) at Cape Caniveral, Florida and Huntsville, Alabama.