Life
Born 21 November 1887 near Pawhuska in the Osage Nation, Indian Territory. His father, George Edward Tinker, founded the Wah-Sha-She News, the first Osage newspaper. Educated at Catholic schools in Hominy and Pawhuska, then at the Haskell Institute (from 1900) and Wentworth Military Academy (from 1906), where he graduated nineteenth in the class of 1908. Commissioned a third lieutenant in the Philippine Constabulary that year; served there until receiving his U.S. Army infantry commission in March 1912.
Through the interwar years he served on three continents, rose steadily through the Air Service and the Air Corps, and built the case — against the prevailing view in Washington — that long-range air power against Japan was the decisive instrument of the coming Pacific war.
Promoted Major General in January 1942, six weeks after Pearl Harbor. Took command of the Seventh Air Force at Hickam Field, Hawaii. On 7 June 1942, in the closing hours of the Battle of Midway, he led a long-range bombing sortie of LB-30 Liberators against Japanese positions at Wake Island. His aircraft was seen to go out of control and plunge into the sea. Tinker and ten other crewmen perished. No remains were recovered.
Standing observances
- Tinker Day — 7 June. The diaspora marks the anniversary of His loss at sea.
- Tinker Memorial Song. Sung at the In-lon-shka, belongs to the people. The Wah-Zha-Zhe Diaspora Council holds the standing channel for any public matter touching the song.
- Tinker Scholars. Full tuition for qualifying Native American students entering the U.S. service academies, ROTC programmes, or undergraduate work in aeronautics, engineering, and applied sciences. Awards announced 7 June each year through the Osage Foundation.
- Chairman Emeritus. The seat is held permanently in His honour and is never refilled.
The Field that bears his name
On 14 October 1942, four months after His loss, the Oklahoma City Air Depot was named Tinker Field in his honour. Today Tinker Air Force Base employs more than twenty-six thousand military and civilian personnel, the largest single-site employer in the State of Oklahoma. The base runs the standing depot maintenance for the long-range bombers and the airborne early-warning aircraft of the United States Air Force, in line with the discipline the General himself argued for decades earlier.
Primary sources
- Christal Cooper, Native American Indian General Clarence Leonard Tinker, 7 November 2013. chrisricecooper.blogspot.com
- United States Air Force, official history of Tinker Air Force Base.
- Osage Nation, biographical record at osagenation-nsn.gov.
Continued reading
- osage.global/who-we-are — the standing history of the diaspora.
- docs.osage.network/docs/memorial — primary-source reference for the General’s life.
- osage.poker — the General was a renowned poker partner; the annual Tinker Cup is held in His memory each June.
He flew his own plan. He died at sea on the last day of Midway. The seat is held.