World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseLucius Theus was born in Madison County, Tennessee, United States in 1922. He enlisted in the US Army Air Forces in 1942 as a private, and served in various support roles to the all-Black Tuskegee airmen during WW2. Selected for Officer Candidate School after the war, he graduated OCS second in his class in 1946, and was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant. He graduated with a bachelor of science degree from the University of Maryland in 1956 and a master's degree in business administration from The George Washington University in 1957. He also completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program, the first African American to do so. His recommendations on race relations within the US military also led to the establishment of the forerunner to the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute. He retired from the US Air Force in 1979 at the rank of major general. He was the first and only Tuskegee enlisted soldier in a support role during WW2 to be promoted to general rank, and he was the third African American to reach general rank in the US Air Force. After his retirement from military service, he served in various executive roles in the civilian sector. He passed away in 2007 and was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, United States.