Frank Maxwell Andrews

Frank Andrews was born in Nashville in 1884 and graduated from West Point in 1906. He became the first head of a centralized American air force when he took command of GHQ Air Force in 1935. In 1941 he led the Caribbean Defense Command, which guarded the southern approaches to the United States including the Panama Canal. In February 1943 he replaced Dwight Eisenhower as commander of American forces in the European theater. He died on May 3, 1943, when the B-24 Hot Stuff crashed in Iceland, and Andrews Field in Maryland was renamed for him in 1945.

What the plaque says

Frank Maxwell Andrews Born in a house which stood here, Feb. 3, 1884, he graduated from the Military Academy in 1905. Originally a cavalry officer, he transferred to the Air Corps in 1917. In 1941 he commanded the Caribbean Defense Command, later U.S. Air Forces, Middle East: then was commanding general, European Theater of Operations. At the time of his death in Iceland, May 3, 1943, he held the Distinguished Service Medal, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal and Order of the Crown of Italy.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• National Museum of African American Music — 0.5 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Ryman Auditorium — 0.5 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• Fort Negley — 0.6 mi
  The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 0.7 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.

More markers nearby

• Captain William Driver — steps away
• Immaculate Mother Academy — steps away
• Albert Gleaves — 0.5 mi
• City Cemetery — 0.5 mi