Harold E. Watson collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 13.0078

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection centers around a Brigadier General in the U.S. Air Force. It includes items related to his time in the military and his personal life before and after retirement. It includes personal letters, special orders, magazines, books, newspapers and clippings, event brochures, pamphlets, education records, personnel files, flight logs, photographs, VHS Tapes, cassette tapes, and flags spanning from the 1930s until the early 2000s.

Dates

Created: 1929-2013
Other: Date acquired: 12/05/2013

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open to all researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Biographical or Historical Information

Harold E. Watson was born on November 19, 1911 in Farmington, Connecticut. After graduating from high school in 1929, he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, earning his degree in electrical engineering in 1933. He later graduated from Kelly Field as a flying cadet, and was assigned to the 96th Bomb Squadron. In 1939, he was transferred to Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio working in research development. He recieved his M.S. in aeronautical engineering in 1941 from the University of Michigan. During the War, he flew in the European theatre, and later returned as part of Operation Lusty, part of the effort to capture German aircraft and return them to the U.S., and acted as an experimental test pilot over the next few years. In 1947, he was appointed as chief of the Air Technical Intelligence Center at Wright-Patterson, and in 1949, worked on Project Grudge, one of the U.S. Air Force's programs tracking and analyzing the threat of Unidentified Flying Objects. He was assigned to a position in the Allied Air Forces command involved with NATO in 1951 before returning to the ATIC in 1954. He retired in 1962 as a Brigadier General. He died January 5, 1994.