Hum1

Colonel Richard Hum began a proud 32 year history of Military Service which has been continued on for three generations. His son is on active duty as a Colonel (Chaplan) in the Air Force, and his grandson is a third year cadet at the Air Force Academy. Private Hum joined the military in 1942, partly as a result of patriotic feelings following Pearl Harbor. Hum attended his basic training at Fort Ord, California, and after basic training, Hum joined the Army Air Corps, went to meterology training at Reed College, then to officers training at Yale Uniuversity, where he was commissioned in communications. At Yale, he had the opportunity to listen to famous big-band leader, Major Glenn Miller, play for the cadets during lunchtime. After graduation, Lieutenant Hum's first assignment was in Luke Field, Army Air Base, in Phoenix Arizona, as a detachment Commander of the 24 hour control tower and radio station. Here, Hum worked alongside Chinese Nationalist pilots and cadets who were being trained at the base, and often interpreted slang expressions for these airmen who would be soon be facing the Japanese.

In 1946, Hum transferred to San Bernadino, California, where he was promoted to first Lieutenant, and became a Squadron Air Inspector. Hum soon rose to assistant Wing Air Inspector for the Airways and Air Communications System (AACS). Hum toured Europe and South America inspecting air and radar installations amongst the ruins of World War II. In 1947, Hum returned home to the University of California, where he became a doctoral candidate in physiology. Being in the Active Reserve, Hum was recalled to active duty in 1950, as a Captain in the newly formeed US Air Force. He was again assigned to the airways and air communications system, and stationed in Alaska. Hum's first taste of intelligence assignment was as a the top secret control officer in the theater headquarters. In 1955, Captain Hum was promoted to Major, and joined the Air Force exhibit unit at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, as an Operations Officer, where he toured many parts of the world, showing official Air Force exhibits. Among them were the full scale model of the 'Thor' and 'Atlas' Missiles, which were constructed by Hum's unit and today are on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institute.

In 1958, Hum transferred to the Pentagon and was soon chosen, among a select group of Officers, to first attend the Command and Staff College at Air University in Montgomery, Alabama, and several years later attended the Air War College as well. Hum was also selected as the first Asian American to serve as Military (Air) Attache in Hong Kong, and then later as Defense and Air Attache to the Republic of China in Taiwan.

October, 1962, in one of the most intense and dramatic times of his amazing career, Col. Hum worked directly for Assistant Secretary of Defense, Arthur Sylvester, who was appointed as the sole spokesman for the nation by President Kennedy during the Cuban missile crisis. Hum not only participated in, but witnessed first hand from start to finish, one of the most dramatic and powerful events in our nation's history during this period. On the 'red phone' between Sylvester's office and the Oval Office, Hum briefed President Kennedy on a number of occasions. In later years, Hum also had an opportunity to brief two other presidents, but this time, face to face: Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon.