Air Force pilot Jesse Auton, who flew missions in two wars and rose to the rank of Brigadier General. Enlisting in the Army Air Service 1928, he received pilot training in Texas; Auton was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in January 1930. In early 1936, Auton was ordered to Washington, D.C., where he served as a White House aide under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and as an aide and pilot for Louis Johnson, Assistant Secretary of War. Following the outbreak of World War II, Auton was sent as an observer to England and Ireland to survey sites for potential U.S air bases for the newly formed Eighth Air Force. He was returning to the US and was assigned as plans and training officer for the Third Fighter Command in Tampa Florida, and in January 1943 he was given command of the San Francisco Air Defense Wing in California.

During this time he wrote a fighter training guide for squadron and flight commanders, which was used through the end of the war. By April 1943, he had transformed his command into an overseas fighter wing and deployed it to England. The unit was designated the 65th Fighter Wing of the Eighth Air Force when it arrived in England, and it became the first operational U.S. fighter wing in Europe. It was there that he and his staff helped to develop a strategic fighter control and communications system, which helped protect bomber formations more efficiently.

Auton was killed in a plane crash at Offutt Air Force Base, Omaha, on March 20, 1952, while returning on a flight from California.