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<em>Paul Revere Cornwall</em>, the youngest of six sons, was born on 17 May 1913 in Fort Worth, Texas. During the Great Depression his family moved to Los Angeles, California, where he graduated from Manual Arts High School in June 1931. After attending Junior College and UCLA, with the encouragement of his older brother Joe, a Los Angeles Police Captain, Paul entered West Point in 1934 on a competitive appointment from the California National Guard. His phlegmatic personality helped him through Beast Barracks Detail where his middle name “Revere” sent him on numerous fictitious errands. He eased through academics at West Point while he also “boned” red comforter with delight. Paul served on the Cadet Honor Committee and graduated 105 in a class of 301.</p>
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Commissioned in the Coast Artillery, he was assigned to Fort Monroe, Virginia. There he met and married Frances Ann Shumate of Hampton, Virginia in May 1940. They left on their honeymoon for the Philippine Islands, Paul having been ordered to Corregidor. Ten months later, dependents were evacuated to the USA before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.</p>
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Paul served with distinction on Corregidor as a captain in the 60th Coast Artillery (AA) and was awarded the Silver Star. According to the citation, “He aided wounded Americans under enemy artillery, shellfire and aerial bombardment, extinguishing burning buildings, ammunition piles, restored his battery to tactical readiness during the Japanese attack on Corregidor on 12 April 1942. By his outstanding courage, clear thinking under fire, and inspiring leadership. Captain Cornwall fully exemplified the gallant spirit of the dauntless defenders of Corregidor.”</p>
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On 6 May 1942, American forces fell to the Japanese. For almost four years, Paul, with many others, endured the suffering, starvation, and inhumanity of the prison camps at Cabanatuan and Bilibid, Philippine Islands. On 13 December 1944, Paul was among the 1,619 POWs loaded aboard the Oryoku Maru prison ship to Japan. Fewer than 500 men survived the trip. Another 200 died before transfer to Korea. There is little public knowledge or recognition and questionable understanding of the horrors suffered by the POWs in the Philippine Defense Campaign, yet they died at the hands of the Japanese from suffocation, disease, executions, and starvation because of the Japanese refusal to follow any laws for POW treatment. West Point losses were 60 percent. Paul was liberated in Korea in September of 1945.</p>
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Upon return to the United States, he was promoted to major and assigned to the Pentagon. Following a tour of duty as Procurement Officer on the General Staff of the War Department and with Air Force Headquarters, he attended the Air Force Institute of Technology. From February 1949 to August 1950, he attended the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, receiving a master’s degree in Business Administration with distinction and was inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma National Honorary Business Fraternity.</p>
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From 1950 to 1953, Paul was Procurement Inspector in the Inspector General’s Office of the Air Materiel Command and for the next two years headed the Procurement Division of the Oklahoma Air Materiel Area at Tinker Air Force Base.</p>
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Assigned to another tour at the Pentagon as Chief of the Contracts Methods Branch at Air Force Headquarters in Washington, he earned the Legion of Merit.</p>
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From Air Force Headquarters, Paul and Frances arrived in sunny Florida in 1959: Paul as Director of Procurement, Patrick Air Force Base, and Frances as “Director” of their real estate investments in Florida and Virginia.</p>
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In 1962, after 24 years of service, including three-and-a-half years as a POW, Colonel Cornwall retired from the Air Force, later joining Martin Marietta Corporation in Orlando, Florida as general manager of procurement. In April 1963 he was promoted to director of procurement, Orlando Division, and in 1964 was voted “man of the year” by the Orlando Martin-Marietta Management Club for his outstanding work. In 1972, due to his failing health, he retired again.</p>
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Paul’s achievements, largely due to his West Point background, attest to the quality of his military and civilian service. His decorations, in addition to the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit, include the Purple Heart, Air Force Commendation Medal, and seven other World War II medals. He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor, and the Kiwanis Club.</p>
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After years of problems with his heart, two severe heart attacks (quadruple bypass surgery), and later, cancer, he fought his last great battle with courage and dignity. He died in his home in Cocoa Beach, Florida on 3 March 1991. At his side were his wife of 51 years, his brother Charlie and Leo Harmon, his classmate and four year roommate.</p>
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Paul was loved, admired, and remembered for his courage, compassion, strong character in adversity, high standards of military and civilian professionalism, and his sense of humor. “Like a rock,” he was a pillar of strength with his deep sense of responsibility to his family, and a true friend to many. We miss him. God bless him.</p>
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<em>His wife, Frances Ann</em></p>