Charles Rowland Hamm (1933–)

Serving in the United States Air Force, Charles Rowland Hamm trained as a pilot and saw action in the Vietnam War. He had a long military career, before retiring in 1991 as the superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado.  

Charles Hamm was born in Little Rock (Pulaski County) on December 23, 1933, to Rowland Hamm and Mabel Hamm. His father worked in the grocery business. The family appeared in the 1940 federal census in Hot Springs (Garland County). 

Hamm completed his high school education at the Kemper Military School in Booneville, Missouri. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1956. The United States Air Force Academy began operations in 1955, with the first class graduating in 1959. Before the academy became fully operational, however, up to a quarter of the graduates from West Point and the United States Naval Academy could opt to receive their commissions in the Air Force and serve in that branch.  

Commissioned as a second lieutenant upon graduation, Hamm trained as a pilot at Malden Air Force Base in Missouri and Laredo Air Force Base in Texas. His training continued with gunnery school for the F-86 at Williams Air Force Base in Arizona and additional gunnery training for the F-100 at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.  

Assigned to the 50th Tactical Fighter Wing in France, Hamm served as a pilot with that unit from 1958 to 1960. He then served in West Germany as an evaluation pilot and in New Mexico as a weapons officer. In 1962, Hamm reported to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he served two years as a forward air controller with the 101st Airborne Division of the U.S. Army and received his senior parachutist badge.  

Upon completion of that assignment in 1964, Hamm joined the Thunderbirds, the U.S. Air Force demonstration squadron, where he flew the F-100. In 1966, Hamm was posted to South Vietnam, where he initially served as an aide to the commander of the Seventh Air Force before taking command of the 416th Tactical Fighter Squadron, stationed at Bien Hoa Air Base. While in this command from July to November 1966, Hamm flew 103 combat missions.  

At the end of his tour in Vietnam, he returned to the United States and served as an instructor at Nellis Air Force Base. In June 1969, he completed work at the Air Command and Staff College and joined the Air Staff at the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force in Washington DC. The following year, he became assistant executive to the U.S. Air Force chief of staff. Upon his graduation from the National War College in June 1972, Hamm served at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina as the Fourth Tactical Fighter Wing deputy commander for operations. The following year, Hamm returned to Asia as the director of operations and later chief of staff of the Fifth Air Force in Japan.  

Returning to flight status after multiple staff assignments, Hamm took command of the Eight Tactical Fighter Wing in South Korea in 1975. Another posting in Washington followed, with Hamm working in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations. In 1978, he served in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, before taking command of the Thirty-third Tactical Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Russian language training followed that assignment, with a two-year posting in the USSR as a defense attaché from 1981 to 1983. Returning to the United States, Hamm served in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations and as the vice commander of Air Training Command.  

In June 1987, Hamm took his final posting to become the eleventh superintendent of the United States Air Force Academy; he retired on July 1, 1991. During his service, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service with the Thunderbirds; five Air Medals, a Bronze Star, and the Air Force Commendation Medal for his service in Vietnam; and the Legion of Merit, Defense Superior Service Medal, and Distinguished Service Medal.  

Hamm married Little Rock native Rebecca Jane Strawn, and the couple had a son and a daughter. Rebecca Hamm died in October 1987, just four months after Hamm took command of the academy; she is buried in the academy cemetery. On May 6, 1989, Hamm married Sandra Hughes in the academy chapel.  

Hamm was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame in 2000. In retirement, he resides in Texas. For more than a decade, Hamm chaired the Service Academy Advisory Board for Texas Congressional District Twenty-Six, helping the representative select nominees for the federal service academies.  

For additional information:
Barrett, Elizabeth A., and United States Military Academy. The Register of Graduates and Former Cadets of the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. West Point, NY: West Point Association of Graduates, 2015. 

Charles R. Hamm Collection. Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington DC. Finding aid online at https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.94274/#item-service_history (accessed April 9, 2025).  

“Lieutenant General Charles R. Hamm.” United States Air Force Biography, https://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/106866/lieutenant-general-charles-r-hamm/ (accessed April 9, 2025).  

David Sesser
Southeastern Louisiana University