Hoyt Vandenberg - Post-military Life

Post-military Life

A scratch golfer, General Vandenberg spent every free moment on the golf courses, but he was also a lover of movies, Westerns, and scotch. Unfortunately, his last months in uniform were painful, unhealthy ones. General Vandenberg retired from active duty as a result of major illness on June 30, 1953, and died nine months later at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center from prostate cancer at the age of 55. His remains are buried in Section 30 of the Arlington National Cemetery.

His wife, Gladys Rose Vandenberg, started the concept of the Arlington Ladies while Vandenberg was Air Force Chief of Staff. The program provides that a military lady of the appropriate service represents the service chief at all military funerals at Arlington Cemetery. She was buried alongside her husband in Arlington National Cemetery upon her death on January 9, 1978. They are survived by their children, Gloria Miller, and retired Major General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, Jr., USAF.

On October 4, 1958, the missile and aerospace base at Camp Cooke in Lompoc, California, was renamed Vandenberg Air Force Base. In July 1963, the instrument ship USAF General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (T-AGM-10) was renamed at Cape Canaveral, Florida, for duty on the Eastern Space and Missile Range in the Atlantic. One of the two cadets' dormitories at the United States Air Force Academy, Vandenberg Hall, is also named in his honor. In addition, a popular enlisted "hangout" for technical school Airmen at Keesler AFB, Mississippi, is named in his honor. The Vandenberg Esplanade, located along the Merrimack River in Lowell, Massachusetts and part of the Lowell Heritage State Park, is named in his honor.