Robert Charlwood Richardson III (January 5, 1918 – January 2, 2011) was an American military officer of the United States Army Air Corps, and subsequently the United States Air Force, eventually attaining the rank of brigadier general. A leader in the early days of the US Air Force, he was a renowned expert in tactical nuclear warfare, NATO, and military long range planning. In his early career he is known for his involvement in the World War II Laconia incident, where the actions taken by order of Richardson have been identified as a prima facie war crime. Under the conventions of war, ships engaged in rescue operations (including submarines) are held immune from attack. Early career Richardson was born in Rockford, Illinois. In 1932, he attended the Gunnery School in Washington, Connecticut, and in 1933, entered Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, graduating in 1935. He received a congressional appointment from Pennsylvania to the United States Military Academy and graduated in June 1939. He joined the expanding US Army Air Forces attending pilot training schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Randolph and Kelly fields, Texas, graduating in June 1940. In July 1940, he was assigned as a flight instructor at Randolph Field flying AT-6 Texan and AT-7 Navigator training aircraft and subsequently in the advanced twin-engine school at Barksdale Field, flying Martin B-10 bombers. In September 1941, he was transferred to the 52nd Fighter Group, Selfridge Field, served as squadron commander and group operations officer flying P-40 Warhawk pursuit aircraft, and went with the Group to Norfolk, Virginia, and Florence, South Carolina. On Ascension Island In April 1942, he took command of the 1st Composite Squadron, a unit of 18 P-39 Airacobras pursuit aircraft and five B-25 Mitchell bombers being organized at Key Field, Meridian, Mississippi. He deployed, in August 1942, to the newly constructed and secret Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. Their function was to patrol the sea around the island, to detect and destroy any enemy submarines and surface raiders, and to protect Allied ships in the vicinity of the island. Wideawake Airfield was a key refueling base on the only air resupply route in 1942–1943 connecting the United States to the Allied Western Desert Campaign raging in North Africa and the Soviet forces through the Persian Gulf and the Caucuses. The air route stretched from Florida and Texas across the Caribbean region, down