Richard Gregory Bulgin
April 7, 1919 — August 14, 2017
Brigadier General Richard G. Bulgin USAF (Retired), a longtime resident of Albuquerque and one of the first Army Air Corps Officers to be assigned to Kirtland Airfield, passed away on August 14, 2017 at home.
General Bulgin, a rated pilot and bombardier, arrived in Albuquerque from Barksdale Air Field on December 16, 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served the next three years instructing pilots and bombardiers on precision bombing using the Norden Bomb Sight, directing flying and training activities as head of the Bombardier Training Facility.
General Bulgin was from Fort Smith, AR, entering military service from the University of Arkansas as an aviation cadet in 1940. Upon leaving Kirtland, he was assigned as commander, 89th Organization in Wiesbaden, Germany. This was a unit commanding all airmen in the city of Wiesbaden. While with the Occupation Forces in Germany, he flew C47’s during the first phases of the Berlin Airlift. In 1950 he was Chief of Logistics Division, 2nd Air Force. During the Korean War he was assigned commander of the B-29 Squadron and Director of Operations of the 307th Bombardment Wing located on Okinawa, flying 421 combat hours. In 1959 he was assigned to Sculthorp, England with the 47th Bomb Wing, a wing assigned to the US NATO Treaty. During the Cold War and the War in Vietnam he served six Chiefs of Staff. In 1966 he returned to Europe as Deputy Director of Operations, J-3 and finally as Deputy Director of Logistics, J-4, US European Command. He retired and returned to Albuquerque in 1970.
General Bulgin was a graduate of the Air Command and Staff College, the Army War College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. His decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal.
He married Marion Adele Kunz (Marnie) an Albuquerque girl, formerly from Chicago, then Arizona, a graduate of the University of Arizona who became “Miss Arizona”. He is survived by his daughter, Ann of San Antonio; son, Richard in Memphis; two grandsons; and two great-grandchildren.