Military pilot Muir Stephen Fairchild served in two world wars and helped create the U.S. Air Force. Fairchild Air Force Base near Spokane is named in his honor. Born in Bellingham, Fairchild kept lifelong ties to his hometown.
Muir Fairchild’s Father Was a Canadian Immigrant
Muir Fairchild was born September 2, 1894, in New Whatcom, later Bellingham. As his family was celebrating their only child’s birth, the city was threatened by a raging wildfire. Perhaps this was an omen for a life that would be marked with conflict.
The future general’s parents were Harry Anson Fairchild (1858-1911) and Georgia Crocket Fairchild (1857-1939). Georgia’s father, John Crockett (1826-1869), was one of the earliest settlers on Whidbey Island.
Born in Ontario, Harry came to what became Bellingham in 1884 and opened a law office. Active in local politics, he served as Whatcom County prosecuting attorney and was elected to the state legislature in 1899.
Fairchild Family Moves to Olympia
After Albert Mead, who was from Bellingham, was elected state governor in 1905, he rewarded Harry, chair of the Whatcom County Republican committee, with an appointment to the new state railway commission.
The Fairchild family moved to Olympia but continued to maintain their Bellingham home. Harry was later appointed to the Public Service Commission.
An active student, Muir Fairchild played basketball, belonged to a volunteer youth fire department, owned one of Olympia’s earliest motorcycles, and built a radio with a friend that was displayed at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle.
From UW to the Air
After graduating from high school in 1913, Fairchild enrolled in the University of Washington. But his interest lay in the military, and he joined the U.S. Army Signal Corps reserves later that year. Promoted to sergeant in 1916, he was deployed to Mexico with the National Guard during the Poncho Villa Expedition.
Riding a horse through the desert, Fairchild was fascinated by observation planes overhead. He decided he wanted to become a pilot.
Then America joined World War I. Fairchild became a flying cadet at Berkley, California. Completing his training in France and Italy, he received his wings and commission in the Army’s Aviation Section in January 1918. A bomber pilot, he flew night missions over the Rhine River with French forces. The French awarded him the Croix de Guerre.
Between World Wars
Returning to the United States and after a short visit to family in Bellingham, Fairchild decided to continue with the Army Air Service. Serving engineering assignments across the country, tragedy struck when his wife Alice Brocha (1898-1921) died. Three years later, Fairchild married Florence Alice Roseiter (1898-1989). The couple had one daughter, Betty Anne (Calvert) (1927-2010).
Fairchild’s skill as a pilot earned him the honor of participating in the 1926-1927 Pan American Good Will Flight to South America. The flight was difficult, and several people were killed in an accident. Fairchild was awarded the new Distinguished Flying Cross.
After completing training at the Air Corps Engineer School at Wright Field, Fairchild served as the Air Corps representative to Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, California.
Promoted to captain in 1931, Fairchild spent the next few years studying at the Air Corps Tactical School, Army Industrial College, and Army War College. In 1936, he was promoted to major and returned to Maxwell Field, Alabama, as an instructor. He later became director of air tactics and strategy. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1940.
Leading America in the Air
World War II pulled Fairchild away from teaching to administration. In 1941, he was assigned to the Plans Division in Washington, D.C. and was named secretary of the new Air Staff later that year.
Quickly promoted to brigadier general, he became assistant chief of the Air Corps. In 1942, he became director of military requirements, later achieving the rank of major general. He was assigned to the Joint Strategic Survey Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
When the war finally ended, Fairchild thought of retiring to a small ranch in Rancho Santa Fe, California. But the military had other ideas. Widely regarded as an elder statesman in the Army Air Corps, his colleagues thought he could play a critical role in rebuilding the post-war Air Service.
Fairchild was promoted to lieutenant general and named commandant of the new Air University at Maxwell Field in 1946. The Air Service’s schools, he wrote a colleague, “must take into account an entire new world of war fighting.”
While Fairchild might have thought of retiring, he was selected as vice chief of staff when the U.S. Air Force was created in 1948 and promoted to four-star general.
Fairchild made his last visit to Bellingham in 1933. Three years later, his childhood home, which had been purchased from the school district and moved from Broadway and Dupont Streets to Broadway and Sunset Drive, was torn down. The original site, on the Roeder School playfield, was marked by a wide-spreading maple tree that had been in the Fairchild’s yard.
Fairchild Air Force Base
General Fairchild died of a heart attack at Fort Myer, Virginia, on March 7, 1950. He was 55. “Bellingham-born general passes,” announced the Bellingham Herald. He left behind three cousins in Bellingham and many friends.
Serving in the military from World Wars to the Cold War, General Muir Fairchild lived in a time of great change and challenges. In 1951, the Spokane Air Depot was renamed Fairchild Air Force Base in his honor. It is a fitting tribute to the Bellingham-born pilot who dedicated his life to serving his country.
