Page 22 - DFCS NEWS MAGAZINE 2020-1

Brigadier General Robert “Bob” Cardenas, USAF (Ret.)
Legendary Test Pilot and Combat Leader Honored with Bob Gilliland Award By Warren Eastman
On November 22, 2019, the March Field Air Museum in Riverside, CA honored legendary aviator and DFC Society member Brigadier General Robert “Bob” Cardenas with the Museum’s second annual Bob Gilliland Award at a gala celebration.
Ninety-nine years young, Brig. Gen. Cardenas, USAF (Ret.) has flown over 60 different types of aircraft in his career as a test pilot, combat leader, and Commander of the Air Force Special Operations Force. In 1947 General Cardenas was the test pilot for the XB-49 flying wing jet-bomber and the Command Pilot on the B-29 Superfortress that launched Chuck Yeager and the X-1 on its flight to break the sound barrier.
The Bob Gilliland Award is named for the legendary Lockheed test pilot who flew the first flight of the SR-71, as well as flying its predecessors, the A-12, and YF-12A. Gilliland logged more flight test hours at Mach 3 than any other pilot in the world. He also had five successful dead-stick landings in the F-104.
Bob Cardenas immigrated to San Diego from Mexico at age 5 with his family. He became a naturalized citizen at age 16. While
attending San Diego State University, he joined the California National Guard. He received his pilot wings and a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the Army Air Corps through the Aviation Cadet program in July 1941.
Following his pilot training, he was a flight instructor at Kelly Field, Texas, followed by glider pilot training and then duty as a glider pilot instructor at Twenty-Nine Palms, California, and finally as a flight test officer at Wright Field, Ohio. He was instrumental in developing gliders used by American airborne forces in the Normandy invasion.
He flew B-24s from England in 1944. Shot down on his eighteenth mission, they headed for Switzerland. Bailing out near the Swiss border, Cardenas landed on the German side; though wounded, he swam the ice-cold Lake Constance until a Swiss boat picked him up in the middle of the lake. Interned, he instructed Swiss Air Force pilots to fly interned American bombers. He later escaped to France, evaded capture and made it back to allied lines.
After returning to the U.S. in November 1944, he attended B-24 instructor pilot school and then served as a test pilot at Wright Field until June 1947, and then at Muroc AFB/Edwards AFB, California until July 1949. He was chief test pilot for bomber aircraft and flew all prototypes of that class for the next four years, including the XB-42 Mixmaster and XB-43 Jetmaster. He also evaluated the captured German ME-262 jet fighter and the Arado 234 bomber. In 1947, he became the Officer in Charge of Operations and was the Command Pilot for the B-29 that launched Captain Chuck Yeager in the Bell X-1 on the first supersonic flight.
In 1948, he was the Chief Air Force test pilot on Northrop’s first flying
wing, the YB-49. See https://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/too- much-too-soon-137775401/ for a detailed story of flying the YB-49 by General Cardenas.
During the Korean War, he was assigned to Wright Field and Edwards Air Force Base, testing new fighters and bombers. He was then assigned to Okinawa as Commander of the 51st Fighter Interceptor Wing followed by a Pentagon tour. His next assignment was Chief of the Special Operations Division at US Strike Command Headquarters in Tampa, Florida. In 1962 he led a joint Army and Air Force Special Force into Kashmir, India to evaluate and improve high altitude resupply drops in the Himalayan Mountains. These techniques were used to equip forces and prevented an incursion of Chinese through the Himalayas linking into East Pakistan.
At the March Field Air Museum, DFC Society members with Brig. Gen. Bob Cardenas (seated). L-R: Linda Stull – San Diego Lindbergh Chapter Associate Member, Gene Alfaro - San Diego Lindbergh Chapter President, Bill Baltazar -Inland Empire Chapter President, Chuck Sweeney – DFC Society President, and Warren Eastman – DFC Society Board member and Inland Empire Chapter Vice-President
Cardenas piloted B-29 drops Bell X-1
22 / DFCS News Magazine / SUMMER 2020