TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --
Pawhuska High School dedicated its lecture hall on
Veterans Day to Maj. Gen. Clarence Tinker, a Pawhuska native, Osage Indian and
Tinker Air Force Base’s namesake.
Eighteen veterans were honored at a student assembly
before the dedication ceremony and given a standing ovation for their service.
Other honored guests included several members of Major General Tinker’s family.
“I want to express the deep emotion and appreciation that
the Tinker family feels for you recognizing Uncle Clarence and for trying to
use this opportunity to impress that upon all the students here and all the
citizens and parents and the veterans that are honored,” said Dr. Pat Tinker, a
grand nephew of the U.S. Army Air Forces pilot who died leading a flight of
bombers in World War II combat.
The PHS Student Council hosted the dedication, aided by
U.S. Army Reserve Major Jeffrey Williams, a first-year educator who teaches a
Student Council/Leadership class. The class’s students have been renovating the
lecture hall as a project.
“I wanted the Leadership class to study servant leadership
and undertake a project in service to something higher than themselves,” Major
Williams said. The officer spoke at the assembly about Major General Tinker’s
sacrifice when his Liberator bomber crashed in the Pacific on June 6, 1942. All
aboard were lost.
He urged students to emulate the general’s courage,
loyalty, commitment to duty and integrity.
“General Tinker’s legacy, and all other veterans’
legacies, are our ability to live our lives as free Americans, exploring and
pursuing opportunities that hopefully and ultimately will leave behind a legacy
of our own,” Major Williams said. “General Tinker lives on through each of us
through our actions and through our freedom.”
Osage Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear noted that
the tribe performs a little over 20 songs and dances to express its culture
over the year. One of the summer songs is dedicated to Major General Tinker.
“The Osage nation really appreciates what you’re doing
here,” the chief said. “I just wanted to express how important General Tinker
is to us, and we’re so happy that you are recognizing that.”
Ninety-one-year-old Bill Tinker, a nephew of the general
and a veteran, said the dedication was “quite an honor.”
“I feel very good about it,” Mr. Tinker said. “I’m glad
that kids at this age are finding out something about the real world. It’s a
wonderful experience for me to be here and to see the young kids take an
interest in this sort of thing.”
Still under renovation, the lecture hall will include an
oil pastel portrait of the general that Major Williams painted. The hall also
will be home to an Air Force flag flown over Tinker AFB and other items from
the base’s command group.
General Tinker was born Nov. 21, 1887, in the
Osage Nation, Indian Territory, in what is now Osage County. The general began
flying lessons in 1919 and transferred to the Army Air Corps. He was the first
American general to die in World War II.