Ranald T. Randy Adams Jr., Air Force officer

Ranald T. “Randy” Adams Jr., 87, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and veteran of two wars who served 34 years in the military, died Dec. 30 at Inova Loudoun Hospital in Leesburg.

He had lymphoma, said his daughter Mary Lafsky.

Gen. Adams, an Alexandria resident, flew 50 combat missions as a fighter pilot in the Korean War. During the Vietnam War, he was an airbase advisory chief in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

In the late 1970s, he was a director of the Inter-American Defense College at Fort McNair in Washington and chaired the Inter-American Defense Board, which advises the Organization of American States on defense matters. He retired from the Air Force in 1981.

His military decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, the Distinguished Flying Cross, two awards of the Meritorious Service Medal, six awards of the Air Medal, and the Air Force Commendation Medal.

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After leaving the Air Force, Gen. Adams worked as a special investigations consultant to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee before retiring again in 1991.

Ranald Trevor Adams Jr. was born at Fort Sill, Okla., where his father was a field artillery officer. He was a 1946 graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he sang and played clarinet in a cadet band.

He received a master’s degree in international affairs from George Washington University in 1966 and attended the Air Command and Staff College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Ala.

His wife of 58 years, Jeannette Chichester Adams, died in 2005. Survivors include three children, Ranald Adams III of Hyde Park, N.Y., Mary Lafsky of Great Falls and Jeannette Adams of Bothell, Wash.; and three grandchildren.

— Megan McDonough

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