Nelson P. Jackson

Nelson Parkyn Jackson (December 26, 1910 – November 13, 1960) was a highly decorated U.S. Air Force colonel who commanded the 327th Fighter Group and the 64th Fighter Wing during World War II. He was also the chief of staff of I Fighter Command, where he played a key role in training pilots for combat and developing close air support tactics. After the war, he was involved in the formation of Strategic Air Command (SAC) as deputy chief of staff of the 15th Air Force and was actively involved in the US atomic energy program, participating in Operation Crossroads nuclear tests and commanding Operation Fitzwilliam.

Jackson later served as a NATO liaison officer within the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He went on to become the D.C. manager for GE's Atomic Energy Division and an attorney involved in the aerospace and nuclear industries. He was a founder and president of the National Space Club, which later established the Nelson P. Jackson Aerospace Memorial Award in his honor.

Nelson P. Jackson was born in Burlington, Vermont, in 1910. He was the son of Mabel Maude Parkyn and S. Hollister Jackson, who served as the 56th Lieutenant Governor of Vermont until his death in the Great Vermont Flood of 1927.

On his paternal side, his grandfather was Rev. Samuel Nelson Jackson, both a medical doctor and a leading Congregational minister with national and international standing. His uncle, John Holmes Jackson, served as the 24th and 26th Mayor of Burlington, Vermont, and remains the city's longest-serving mayor. Another uncle, Horatio Nelson Jackson, gained national recognition as the first person to drive an automobile across the U.S., and later was a co-founder of the American Legion and owner of the Burlington Daily News, where Nelson worked as a part-time reporter.

His maternal uncle was Dr. Herbert A. Parkyn, a prominent figure in the New Thought movement and founder of The Chicago School of Psychology.

In 1925, Jackson was admitted to the Culver Military Academy, a preparatory school in Indiana. During his summer breaks, he took flying lessons at Chanute Field in Rantoul, Illinois. In 1929, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point from Senator Porter H. Dale. That same year, his childhood friend from Burlington, Alfred D. Starbird, was also admitted. Graduating in the class of 1933, Jackson received his commission as a second lieutenant and joined the Air Corps.

In the fall of 1933 Jackson began his primary flight training at Randolph Field near San Antonio, Texas. He then completed his advanced pursuit flight training at Kelly Field earning his pilot wings in 1934.

In December 1934, Jackson was transferred as a first lieutenant to Albrook Field in Balboa, Panama. He was assigned to the 74th Pursuit Squadron, under the command of Orrin Leigh Grover. In 1935 the squadron won the "Department Commander's Trophy", an annual award given to the best Air Corps squadron in the department. Several of his class of 1933 USMA classmates, including Dwight Divine (24th Pursuit), Laurence B. Kelley (25th Bomb), Robin B. Epler (7th Observation), and Thomas B. Hall (80th Service), were also stationed with him at Albrook Field.