Born in
Nashville, Tennessee, Andrews was the grandson of a cavalry soldier who fought alongside
Nathan Bedford Forrest and the great-great-nephew of two Tennessee governors,
John C. Brown and
Neill S. Brown. He graduated from the city's
Montgomery Bell Academy in 1901 and graduated from the
United States Military Academy at West Point in 1906. Andrews graduated 42nd in his class and was commissioned a
second lieutenant in the
8th Cavalry on June 12, 1906, assigned to the Philippines from October 1906 to May 1907, and then to
Fort Huachuca, Arizona. In 1912, he was promoted to an available billet as a
first lieutenant in the
2nd Cavalry, at
Fort Bliss, Texas, and in 1916 received a promotion to
captain in the regiment while at
Plattsburgh Barracks, New York. The
United States Army he joined was smaller than that of Bulgaria, but it gave the young second lieutenant ample opportunities to play
polo, see the world (serving as
aide-de-camp to General
Montgomery M. Macomb in
Hawaii between 1911 and 1913), and observe the
high and
low politics of leadership. After marrying Jeannette "Johnny" Allen, the high-spirited daughter of Major General
Henry Tureman Allen, in 1914, Andrews gained entrée into elite inner circles of Washington society and within the military. They were the parents of three children: Josephine (1914–1977), Allen (1917–2008), and Jean (b. 1923). A story related in the press many times during Andrews' lifetime claimed that General Allen forestalled the aeronautical aspirations of his future son-in-law by declaring that no daughter of his would marry a flyer. Andrews' service records, however, show that his commanding officer in the Second Cavalry vetoed his application for temporary aeronautical duty with the
Army Signal Corps in February 1914, a decision that held firm despite a plea from the Chief Signal Officer's for reconsideration by higher-ups. After the United States entered
World War I, Andrews was promoted to temporary
major on August 5, 1917, and assigned over the objections of his cavalry commander to the
Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps as part of its wartime expansion. After staff duty in
Washington, D.C. in the Office of the Chief Signal Officer between September 26, 1917, and April 25, 1918, Andrews went to
Rockwell Field, California, for flying training. There, he earned a
rating of Junior Military Aviator at the age of 34. As with nearly all mid-career officers detailed to the Aviation Section, Andrews did not serve in France but as an administrator in the huge training establishment created to provide pilots. He commanded various training airfields in Texas and Florida and served in the war plans division of the Army General Staff in Washington, D.C. Following the war, he replaced Brigadier General Billy Mitchell as Air Officer of the Army of Occupation in Germany, which his father-in-law, General Allen, commanded. While in Germany, Andrews received his permanent establishment promotion to major, Cavalry, when the National Defense Act of 1920 took effect on July 1, and then transferred in grade to the
Air Service, which the Act had made a
combat arm of the Army, on August 6. ==Air Service and Air Corps duty==