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History of Brig. Gen. Martinus Stenseth
Courtesy photo returned home. He remained in Europe,
By Gerald White
99th Air Base Wing Historian
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. —
Seventy- ve years ago, with construction
of what would be Las Vegas Army Air Field
just underway, Lt. Col. Martinus Stenseth
arrived to take command and organize the
rst of what would be eight Army Air Force
exible gunnery schools to provide trained
gunners to a eet of B-17 Flying Fortresses
and other bombers in combat worldwide.
Except for about six months in 1943, he
worked towards this mission here at Las
Vegas until April 1945, rising to the rank of
brigadier general. So who was this Lt. Col.
Martinus Stenseth?
He was born in 1890 to immigrant
Norwegian parents in the rural hamlet of
Heiberg, Minnesota, which was then still
almost frontier territory.
Stringing together educational op-
portunities where he could nd them, he
graduated from the Northwest School of
Agriculture in Crookston, Minnesota. in
fall spring 1916 and joined the 3rd Regi-
ment, Minnesota National Guard, just in
time to see service on the Mexican border
that same year.
With a short break a er his return, he
rejoinedandwassenttoano cercandidate
course at Fort Snelling but soon transferred
to the Air Service (then part of the Signal
Corps), taking his ground school on the
Ohio State campus in Columbus, Ohio. He
was then part of a group transferred by ship
to France for ight training in French and
Air Service schools.
He earned his wings and was commis-
sioned as a 1st lieutenant on March 24, 1918,
anda eradditionaltraining,assignedtothe
28th Aero Squadron on Aug. 28, 1918. In just
10 weeks of combat, he advanced to ight
leader and recorded eight aerial victories
becoming an ace. A er the war, several of
these actions would result in award of the
Distinguished Service Cross and Silver Star.
A er the end of combat, he remained
in France, was promoted to captain and
ultimately commanded the 28th Aero
Squadron for two months before the unit
Feature
assigned to work for the American Relief
Administration’s Baltic Mission and serving
as representative for the Food Relief Grain
Corporation in Libau, Latvia, through
August 1919.
As he wanted to stay in the Army and
fly, he was assigned to several posts in
Texas including command of the 90th Aero
Squadron along the Mexican border. A er
commissioning as a 1st lieutenant in the
Regular Army, he spent much of 1922-1926
in Iowa and Minnesota advising and over-
seeing training for Reserve and National
Guard aviation units.
From 1926-1927, he attended the Air
Corps Tactical School at Langley Field,
Virginia, and was part of the welcoming
reception for the Navy cruiser Memphis
when Charles Lindberg returned from his
ight to Paris.
He then attended the Advanced Calvary
School at Fort Riley, Kansas, before a short Corps Gunnery School, Las Vegas, and
stop at Selfridge Field, Michigan, and then
sta duty in Washington, D.C., with the
War Plans Section, O ce of the Chief of
the Air Corp and the Militia Bureau as As-
sistant Chief, Operations and Organization
Division. He did get to y regularly, includ-
Brig. Gen. Martinus Stenseth, 82nd Flying Training Wing commander, pins on the Distinguished Flying Cross and Air Medal decoration
on an aerial gunner after his return from a combat tour overseas at Las Vegas Army Air Field, Nev.
ing delivering aircra to the Canal Zone
through Mexico in 1932.
He was then posted to the Philippines
where he commanded 2nd Observation
Squadron, who were commended for their
work surveying landing strips for use in de-
fending the Philippines. Returning in 1936,
he commanded the Air Corps Primary
School Flying Detachment and later the
52th Student Squadron at Randolph Field,
Texas as the expansion started in prepara-
tion for World War II.
He saw the results of combat as an ob-
server in the Baltics in May 1940, serving as in the waist of the plane and in turrets or
assistant military attaché in Latvia and then positions in the tail and underneath and
FinlanduntilSeptember1940,arrivinga er
Latvia had been occupied by the Soviets and
justa ertheendoftheWinterWarbetween
Finland and Russia.
He returned to the U.S. for a short time
atMo ettField,California,ArmyAviation’s
West Coast training headquarters until he
was assigned as commander for the Air
arriving May 2, 1941. Originally, he and
other key sta worked out of o ces in the
basement of the post o ce building until
July when there were enough buildings at
the air eld to house everyone.
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Stenseth’s job was to organize a school
of a type that had never existed before. He
and key sta traveled to a gunnery school
in Canada to see how they were training.
His sta , almost all Reservists and hastily
commissioned civilians, had to come up
with training devices and syllabuses.
e small number of gunners needed un-
til then were usually trained on the job and
it was o en secondary to being an observer
or ight engineer or radio operator.
e B-17 and B-24 had gun positions
for those specialties but also had gunners
later in the nose.
A B-17 had six enlisted gunners; ini-
tially with 12 B-17s in a squadron, a number
growing to 18 later in the war and with four
squadrons in a bomb group, that called for
288 gunners, later 432 gunners, not count-
ing replacements for casualties. Although
the number varied almost by month, by
1943, there were as many as 40 bomb groups
with B-17s, not counting reconnaissance
units that also ew B-17s.
With the first class graduating in
_______ See HISTORY, on page 6
U.S. Air Force photo