John Hamilton Hinds was born in Fort Monroe, Virginia, on 9 February 1898, the son of Lieutenant Ernest Hinds, a career Army officer who later reached the rank of major general, and his wife Minerva Hatton née Miller.[1][2]
Hinds was a student officer at the United States Army Field Artillery School at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, from 1 December 1918 to 21 February 1919. He was then a student officer at the Field Artillery Basic School at Camp Zachary Taylor, Kentucky, until June 1919, when he embarked for France on a tour of the World War I battlefields there. He was promoted to first lieutenant on 1 September, and returned to Camp Zachary Taylor, on 21 October.[3]
Between the wars
On 5 August 1920, Hinds returned to Fort Sill as a battery commander and the aide-de-camp to the commanding general there (his father). He was a student officer at the Field Artillery School there again from 10 September 1921 until he graduated on 15 June 1922. He was a student officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 24 August 1922 to 24 August 1923, when he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics, and returned to West Point as an instructor in mathematics until 20 August 1927. He was stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, as his father's aide from September 1927 to March 1928.[4]
Between May 1928 and November 1929, Hinds was based at Fort Stotsenburg in the Philippines, where he was in charge of a water project worth $65,000, a $10,000 road construction project, and a $200,000 works construction program. He returned to Fort Sam Houston as a battery commander in the 12th Field Artillery Regiment on 30 March 1931. He remained there until 29 March 1934, when he became aide-de-camp to Major General Halstead Dorey, the commanding general of the Hawaiian Division and the Hawaiian Department, at Schofield Barracks in the Territory of Hawaii until 23 July 1935. He was promoted to captain on 1 November 1934, and commanded Battery D, 11th Field Artillery Regiment until 28 May 1936.[5]
After the war ended, Hinds reverted to his substantive rank of lieutenant colonel on 30 April 1946. He was promoted top colonel again on 11 March 1948.[6] He served as one of the two Army members of the Atomic Energy Commission's Military Liaison Committee from August 1946 to December 1949.[8] He served on the staff of the Far East Command in Tokyo, with the rank of brigadier general from 29 January 1950, then became the Deputy Military Governor of the Ryukyus in February 1950.[6]
As the commander of the division artillery of the 1st Cavalry Division, he was awarded an oak leaf cluster to his Silver Star for gallantry at Yangdogwan-ni. After the war he served as the Army Secretary of the Research & Development Board in the Office of the Director of Supply Management Agencies in the Department of Defense. His final assignment was as chief of the development and test section of the Continental Army Command. He retired in as a major general in 1956.[1][9]
Later life
Hinds soon tired of retirement and took a position at North American Aviation in 1958. He remained there until he retired, this time for good, in 1962. He moved to Bleak Hill in Virginia, and restored its colonial appearance. He moved to Clermont, Florida, in 1977, and remained there for the rest of his life. He died there on 18 January 1993. His remains were interred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas.[1][10]
Personal life
Hinds married Florence Baker in 1919. They had a son, Ernest Hinds II, who followed his father and grandfather to West Point, graduating 329th in the class of 1943. The couple divorced in 1952. In 1954 he married Elizabeth H. Burkart. Through her he acquired a stepson, Edward Burhart.[1][10][11]
^Empric, Bruce E. (2024), Uncommon Allies: U.S. Army Recipients of Soviet Military Decorations in World War II, Teufelsberg Press, p. 112, ISBN979-8-3444-6807-5
