Refer to Robert C. Miller's, Colonel, USAF Ret. description of how he and E. J. Fawbush were, essentially, forced to put tornado on their forecast on March 25, 1948 by Major General Fred S. Borum. This brief biography will give you some background on a military leader (non- meteorologist) whose decision had significant impact on tornado forecasting.

Fred Sidney “Fritz' Borum was born in the small western Illinois town of Winchester on April 25, 1892. At age 12 he moved with his parents to Muskogee, Indian Territory, and years later he declared, “I'm actually a pioneer Oklahoman; ...I've always considered Oklahoma my home.

After graduation from the public schools, Borum enrolled in Muskogee's Kendall College, a Presbyterian school that became Tulsa University. However, he soon quit the academic world to go to work, participating in construction, oil drilling, and general merchandizing. For a short time he worked with his brother-in-law in Dewey, Oklahoma on the state's first sewage system. In 1912 he worked in the oil fields near Chelsea in northeastern Oklahoma. All during this time automobiles were rolling onto the American scene and Borum teamed up with a friend to run a repair shop. While operating the garage, the future two-star general came in contact with aviation for the first time.

In 1914, just as the Great World War broke open in Europe, Katherine Stinson, sister of the founder of the Stinson Aircraft Company, brought her plane to Muskogee on a barnstorming tour. She made a good landing in the center of a small race track but the ground was so soft she could not take off. Borum and his partner were hired to take the plane apart so it could be shipped out by rail.

However, that first contact was not the enthusiastic spark which set his desire to associate himself with aviation. That came in 1917 when he decided to give up his general store enterprise and enlist in the army. Borum admitted he knew nothing about the military, what service or what branch might suit him the best; but the father of a friend persuaded him to join the aviation section of the Army's Signal Corps. The friend's father helped develop the Rio Grande Valley and knew something of the Signal Corps' border patrol activities. Mr. Hill took young Borum to San Antonio and introduced him to Capt. Hubert H. Harmon who was enlisting aviation recruits.

Borum was inducted as a private and sent to the University of Texas in Austin for cadet ground training and then back to San Antonio and Kelly Field for his flight training. He graduated with his wings and a second lieutenant's commission in 1918.

The new army officer remained at Kelly as a flight instructor for the war's duration. Eddie Stinson, brother of Katherine, convinced Borum to stay in the service and get his regular commission. After Armistice, he was put in charge of the flying program at Love Field in Dallas, and later at Ellington Field, Houston.

Now as a firm believer in the possibilities of both civilian and military aviation, Borum was one of the lucky ones and got his commission in the regular army. Thereafter, he received command of the 20th Squadron of the 1st Day Bombardment Group stationed at Ellington and subsequently moved back to Kelly Field with the unit.

One of the most memorable events of his career occurred in 1921 when he took part in Gen. Billy Mitchell's famous task force which bombed battleships anchored in Chesapeake Bay. Borum viewed the entire historic episode from the trailing aircraft he piloted.

In 1923 Borum received an assignment that set the pattern for the rest of his aviation career. He was sent to Buffalo, New York, as a representative of the military's War Plans Division. The Buffalo district was one of the most important in the country since it included the industrial areas New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. His job was to survey all manufacturing concerns in the region and determine their production potential in the event of another multinational conflict.

After three years of working closely with all facets of industrial production, Borum took a tour of duty with the 4th Observation Group and 72nd Bombardment Squadron at Luke Field in Hawaii. Then in 1929 he was ordered to Chanute Field, Illinois to serve as commanding officer of the headquarters squadron and as supply officer for the entire airfield. But he was soon back in industrial planning which was by now his proper sphere of activity. At his next installation, Wright Field, Ohio, Borum helped develop products which the air corps needed. He worked first with the field service section and later with the equipment branch which he headed. During this period he was instrumental in the development of many experimental aviation equipment items that became the accepted standard during World War II.

In 1938 Borum took a brief respite from normal activities and enrolled as a student officer in the Army Industrial College, Washington, D.C.. He graduated from the school in June 1939.

Then in January 1940 Borum became Chief of Field Services Section, Materiel Division, Wright Field. The section had responsibility for the operation of four continental depots comprising the depot structure at the outbreak of the Second War. But to meet the needs of the times, the depot structure had to be enlarged by establishing new depots. Gen. H.H. “Hap” Arnold, head of the army's air corps, and Gen. O.P. Echols, head of the air materiel command, told Borum in mid 1940 they wanted to establish a new depot in the middle west to compliment the ones scheduled for southern Alabama and central Georgia. Oklahoma Senator Elmer Thomas suggested Oklahoma City be considered for such a depot and asked Borum to visit the site on his inspection tour. City leaders played host to the Borum delegation and vigorously lobbied for the military installation that would bring economic benefits to the entire state. After selection of Oklahoma City as the site for the Midwest Air Depot, many people felt that the regional loyalty of Fritz Borum had a lot to do with their good fortune.

During 1941 he also served as commander of the 50th Transport Wing--the first such wing in the nation's history. He organized it so effectively, that within six months it was carrying more cargo than all the established civilian airlines combined.

With the entry of the United States into World War II, Borum was tasked to organize and train the First Troop Carrier Command at Stout Field, Indianapolis, Indiana. He took a small cadre of officers and built it into an organization consisting of over 20,000 people spread out over 12 military installations. In 1943 General Borum went to the European Theater to command the First Fighter Division of the Eighth Air Support Command. Late he was named chief of supply for the Ninth Air Service Command. Then he went into the Mediterranean Theater as chief of supply for the Air Service Command. Every assignment broadened Borum's concept of supply and equipment situations.

In 1944 the General returned to the United States and Wright Field. Shortly thereafter, he was given command of the air depot in Miami, Florida. That proved to be another stepping stone to his assignment in 1945 to the command of the Oklahoma City depot and Tinker Field.

When the war ended and the Douglas Aircraft plant closed the army's air depot took over the industrial facilities adjacent to the airfield. The new commander said, “We had no authority whatsoever to move into Building 3001 and start the engine overhaul line. But we did and I was willing to take the heat because I knew it was the right thing to do.” Borum's knowledge and experience of production practices quickly bore fruit as he established a production line system of maintenance for both aircraft and their engines. Instead of four or five planes crowded into hangar stalls, thirty aircraft could roll along a maintenance line. Aircraft overhauling changed from a repair shop operation to a plant production system.

The reputation of General Borum in the field of aircraft maintenance and the organization and operation of depot facilities was indicated in his 1948 assignment to Burtonwood, England to organize a United Kingdom air material area to care for the overhaul and maintenance of aircraft used in the Berlin Airlift. When the three- month temporary duty was over, Borum returned to his command at Oklahoma City.

As a member of the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce for 30 years Borum served as the chamber's aviation consultant and was given a great deal of credit for the development and expansion of Will Rogers World Airport.

He retired from the Air Force on 30 April 1954 amid persistent rumors, which he consistently denied, that he was preparing to run for governor of Oklahoma. In fact, he became vice president for the Liberty National Bank and Trust Company of Oklahoma City. He lived in Midwest City and returned to Tinker's headquarters building every year for his birthday celebration. Borum and his wife of sixty years, Marjorie, maintained a second home near their daughter, Garnette Marie, in Cocoa Beach, Florida. The General was in Florida when he died of bone cancer on October 25, 1978.

Although Borum wished to be buried in the small German family cemetery on; Tinker AFB, the private permission was denied for fear of precedence and the General was buried in the Florida Memorial Gardens, Cocoa, Florida.