Colorado School of Mines, 1915
Mines AROTC Instructor, 1920
Hometown: Whittier, California
Inducted March 2019
Brigadier General Dale Durkee Hinman entered Colorado School of Mines (Mines) in 1911 and graduated in 1915 with an Engineer of Mines Degree. He played football for four years, serving as the captain of the freshman team, playing backfield for the championship team as a sophomore and was an All Rocky Mountain fullback in his senior year. He also played basketball and was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He was elected to Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society recognizing academic excellence and a commitment to personal and professional integrity.
BG Hinman was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in November 1916. While his military training at Mines pre-dated the 1919 founding of ROTC, in which Mines was one of the original four programs in the nation, he was a product of a long and proud military tradition dating back to the 1874 founding of the school as a Land Grant College. Following World War I, BG Hinman served in the Army of Occupation in Germany and was later stationed in the Philippines.
In 1920, BG Hinman returned to Mines and served as one of the early ROTC instructors. He graduated from Command and General Staff School in 1927 and the War College in 1934. He commanded the 71st Coast Artillery Regiment from 1940-1941 and following this command, was promoted to Brigadier General in October 1941. He was Commanding General for the 38th Coast Artillery Brigade from 1941-1942. In 1942, he joined the Office of Chief of Coast Artillery as the Inspector of Training. In March 1943, he became the Commanding General of the Anti-Aircraft Artillery Training Center at Fort Bliss, Texas. In 1944, he retired from the Army and moved to Whittier, California.
He was an anti-aircraft weapons pioneer and distinguished himself during the Battle of Britain in WWII and in developing improvements in anti-aircraft weaponry following the war. He received the Legion of Merit for his work as an anti-aircraft observer in London in 1941 and an Oak Leaf Cluster was added in 1944 for his many improvements to anti-aircraft weapons.
BG Hinman died in California on December 26, 1949 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery with his wife, Elizabeth. He was the father of two children.
In 1954, the administrative headquarters for the Army Air Defense Artillery School in Fort Bliss, Texas was named Hinman Hall in his honor and a plaque inside the building commemorates his military career, leadership, and character with the words, “he typified the finest in professional soldiery. Commander, instructor, executive and pioneer, his selfless devotion to duty, his sterling personal integrity, and his singular unity of purpose have not only served as an inspiration to all who knew him; but have established a standard for those who follow.”
BG Hinman’s military saber was donated in 2015 by his grandsons, Whitney and Jim Lancaster, and is on display at the Mines Military Department.