DUANE
Duane's take
The marker in Concho County tells this story, and I'm gonna do my best to honor it. April 13, 1896. Field Creek, Llano County, Texas.
That's where Ira Clarence Eaker came into the world. And right from the start, the world had better pay attention. When Ira was about ten years old, his parents — Young Yancy and Ladonia Graham Eaker — moved the family out to the Eden area, where he and his brothers went to school.
Eden, Texas. A small place. The kind of place a boy might grow up and disappear into the ordinary hum of things.
That is not what happened. April 6, 1917 — the United States declared war on Germany. One day later, April 7, 1917, Ira Eaker enlisted in the army.
One day. He did not wait around. He was recruited into the army's early aviation program, and he kept right on with his pilot training through the war.
When the shooting stopped, he didn't exactly slow down — he commanded a squadron in the Philippines, and over there he helped devise an aircraft level instrument that was later further developed by the Air Corps Materiel Division. The man was already building the future while most folks were still getting their bearings. Then came 1926 and 1927, and Eaker served as a pilot on the Pan American Goodwill tour.
He also conceived and tested innovative flight procedures along the way — because apparently just flying wasn't quite enough of a challenge. During the 1930s, he found time to earn a journalism degree and graduate from the Army Command and General Staff School in Kansas. A pilot, an inventor, a journalist, a graduate.
You start to wonder if he slept. And then came World War II. At the outbreak, Eaker was sent to England — to organize and oversee the U.S. 8th Army Air Force Bomber Command.
The mission was to coordinate with the Royal Air Force in round-the-clock bombing of Germany's war works. Round the clock. Day and night.
He was not running this thing from a comfortable room far from the danger, either. He sometimes accompanied his men on those missions, because he believed a commander should know what his troops face in combat. That's not a small thing.
That is a man putting himself at the same risk he was asking of others. He went on to command the 8th Army Air Force itself, and later the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces. As the war drew toward its close, he served at the Pentagon as Deputy Commanding General of the Army Air Forces.
By the time it was all over, Ira Eaker had helped shape the air war across two entire theaters. He retired from the military in 1947. But retiring from the military and retiring from life — those were two different things for Ira Eaker.
He went to work for Howard Hughes, and then for Douglas Aircraft Company, from which he retired in 1961. A few years after that, he launched a newspaper column and spent the rest of his life involved in military commentary. The journalist degree finally had its full say.
And through all of it — the Philippines, England, the Mediterranean, the Pentagon, Howard Hughes, Douglas Aircraft, the newspaper column — he kept coming back to Eden. Remembering his foundation there, remembering his Eden classmates, he returned often for family and community events. Some roots go deep enough that no amount of world doesn't pull them loose.
More than fifty awards and decorations found their way to Ira Clarence Eaker over the course of his life. England knighted him. The United States Congress awarded him the Congressional Gold Medal, naming him an aviation pioneer and air power leader.
Fifty awards. A knighthood. A gold medal from Congress.
All of it earned by a boy who once walked the school halls of Eden, Texas. He died August 6, 1987. The marker stands in Concho County now, not far from where that boy grew up.
And I think that's exactly right.
What the marker says
Ira Clarence Eaker was born April 13, 1896, in Field Creek, Llano County, Texas. In 1906, his parents, Young Yancy and Ladonia (Graham) Eaker, moved the family to the Eden area, where he and his brothers attended school. Eaker enlisted in the army on April 7, 1917, one day after the U.S. declared war on Germany. He was recruited into the army's early aviation program and continued his pilot training through the war, after which he commanded a squadron in the Philippines. There he helped devise an aircraft level instrument, which was further developed by the Air Corps Materiel Division. In 1926-27, Eaker served as a pilot in the Pan American Goodwill tour. He also conceived and tested innovative flight procedures. During the 1930s, he earned a journalism degree and graduated from the Army Command and General Staff School in Kansas. At the outbreak of World War II, Eaker was sent to England to organize and oversee the U.S. 8th Army Air Force Bomber Command, coordinating efforts with the Royal Air Force in round-the-clock bombing of Germany's war works. He sometimes accompanied his men, believing a commander should know what his troops face in combat. He commanded the 8th Army Air Force and later the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces. Near war's end, he served at the Pentagon as Deputy Commanding General of the Army Air Forces. Eaker retired in 1947 and worked for Howard Hughes and then for Douglas Aircraft Company, from which he retired in 1961. He launched a newspaper column a few years later and involved himself in military commentary for the rest of his life. Remembering his foundation in Eden and his Eden classmates, he returned here often for family and community events. The recipient of more than 50 awards and decorations, including knighthood in England and a U.S. Congressional Gold Medal as "aviation pioneer and air power leader," he died August 6, 1987. (2003)