Bennie L. Davis is a native of McAlester and a graduate of the US Military Academy. Commissioned in 1950, he attended pilot training at Vance Air Force Base and afterwards was assigned as a twin-engine pilot in Texas. As a B-57 Tactical Bomber pilot, he flew more than 350 combat hours on 142 missions over Vietnam.
In 1968, he joined the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, D.C., where he served in the Directorate of Operations as Chief of the Current Operations Branch. In August 1970, he was assigned as the Air Force member of the Chairman's Staff Group in the office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 1974, he became commander of the US Air Force Recruiting Service and deputy chief of staff for recruiting, and in 1975 he was named director of personnel plans.
In April 1979, he took command of the Air Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base and became a four-star general. In August 1981, he was made Commander in Chief of the Strategic Air Command and Director of Joint Strategic Target Planning. he is a command pilot with more than 9,000 flying hours.
Following retirement from the Air Force, he served 20 years as a senior fellow at the National Defense University at Fort McNair, Washington, D.C. and he serves as a trustee with the Air Force Historical Foundation.
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