Free Republic
Browse · Search
VetsCoR
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General Ira Clarence Eaker - Jan. 12th, 2004
Handbook of Texas ^

Posted on 01/12/2004 12:00:12 AM PST by SAMWolf



Lord,

Keep our Troops forever in Your care

Give them victory over the enemy...

Grant them a safe and swift return...

Bless those who mourn the lost.
.

FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer
for all those serving their country at this time.


...................................................................................... ...........................................

.

U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues

Where Duty, Honor and Country
are acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated.

.

.

Our Mission:

The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans.

In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should feel free to address their specific circumstances or whatever issues concern them in an atmosphere of peace, understanding, brotherhood and support.

The FReeper Foxhole hopes to share with it's readers an open forum where we can learn about and discuss military history, military news and other topics of concern or interest to our readers be they Veteran's, Current Duty or anyone interested in what we have to offer.

If the Foxhole makes someone appreciate, even a little, what others have sacrificed for us, then it has accomplished one of it's missions.

We hope the Foxhole in some small way helps us to remember and honor those who came before us.

To read previous Foxhole threads or
to add the Foxhole to your sidebar,
click on the books below.

.

.

.

General Ira Clarence Eaker
(1896-1987)

.

Ira Clarence Eaker, aviation pioneer and United States Air Force general, was born on April 13, 1896, at Field Creek, Texas, the eldest of five boys born to Young Yancy and Dona Lee (Graham) Eaker. In 1906 the family moved to Concho County, where they spent three years in the rural community of Hills before moving to a farm a mile outside of Eden. They moved to southeastern Oklahoma in 1912 and returned to Eden ten years later. Ira attended public school at Hills, in Eden, and in Kenefic, Oklahoma. He graduated from Southeastern State Teachers College (now Southeastern Oklahoma State University) at Durant, Oklahoma, and entered the United States Army in 1917.



Eaker was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Infantry Section, Officers Reserve Corps, on August 15, 1917, and assigned to the Sixty-fourth Infantry at Fort Bliss, Texas. He received a similar commission in the regular army on October 26, 1917. His aviation experience began in March 1918, when he was directed to attend ground school at the University of Texas in Austin and flight training at Kelly Field at San Antonio. He received his pilot rating and a promotion to first lieutenant on July 17, 1918. After training, he was sent to Rockwell Field, California, where he met Col. H. H. "Hap" Arnold and Maj. Carl A. "Tooey" Spaatz, two men with whom he had a close military relationship for the rest of his life. In July 1919 he was appointed commander of the Second Aero Squadron and sent to the Philippines for a two-year tour. In 1920 he was reassigned as commander of the Third Aero Squadron and promoted to captain. Upon return to the United States in 1921 he was assigned to Mitchel Field, New York; while there, he attended Columbia Law School. He subsequently spent three years to the staff of Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick, chief of air service, in Washington, D.C.


January 1929, Major Carl Spaatz, USAAC, with Captain Ira Eaker as relief pilot, shown at left, and a crew of three, set a refueling endurance record of 150 hours 40 minutes in the Fokker C2-3 transport "Question Mark", flying over the Los Angeles Airport. This Fokker is now in the NASM exhibit. In 1936, Major Eaker helped pioneer blind flying techniques as he flew from New York to Los Angeles relying on instruments alone. He became a Brigadier General in 1940.


Captain Eaker was one of ten pilots chosen to make the Pan American Goodwill Flight in 1926. During the flight both members of one crew died in a crash. Eaker and his copilot were the only team to complete the entire 23,000-mile itinerary, which included stops in twenty-three countries. The flight left San Antonio on December 21 and ended at Bolling Field, Washington, D.C., where President Calvin Coolidge presented the pilots with the Distinguished Flying Cross, a new award authorized by Congress just a few months earlier. In 1929 Eaker, with Tooey Spaatz and Elwood R. Quesada (both of whom were later generals), flew a Fokker tri-motor named the Question Mark for 150 hours, 40 minutes, and 15 seconds, shuttling between Los Angeles and San Diego, refueling with a hose lowered from a Douglas C-1. They set an endurance record that endured for many years. In 1930 Eaker flew the first transcontinental flight that depended solely on aerial refueling. Eaker was promoted to major in 1935. Beginning on June 2, 1936, he flew blind under a hood from Mitchel Field, New York, to March Field, Riverside, California. Maj. William E. Kepner (who also became a general) flew alongside in this experiment in instrument flight as a safety observer. He stated that Eaker "was under the hood and flying blind" the entire time except for eight take-offs and landings.


The crew of the Question Mark:
Maj. Spaatz, Capt. Eaker, Lt. Halverson, Lt. Quesado, and MSgt.Hooe.


During the middle to late 1930s Eaker attended the Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field, Alabama, and the Army Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He also served on the Air Staff in Washington. He was promoted to full colonel in December 1941 and to brigadier general in January 1942, when he was assigned to England to form and command the Eighth Bomber Command. He was instrumental in the development and application of daylight precision bombing in the European Theater. This tactic was a major factor in the defeat of the Germans. In December 1942 Eaker became commander of the Eighth Air Force in England. On September 13, 1943, he received promotion to lieutenant general, and on October 15, 1943, he assumed overall command of both American air forces in the United Kingdom, the Eighth and the Ninth. He took over as commander of the joint Mediterranean Allied Air Forces on January 15, 1944. With 321,429 officers and men and 12,598 aircraft, MAAF was the world's largest air force. On March 22, 1945, Eaker was transferred back to Washington to become deputy chief of the army air force under Gen. H. H. Arnold. In that position, representing the air force, he transmitted the command from President Harry Truman to General Spaatz, who was then commanding the Pacific Air Forces, to drop the atomic bomb on Japan. Eaker announced his plans to retire from the army in mid-June 1947, saying that he felt he could do more to provide security for the United States out of uniform.



After retirement he was associated with Hughes Aircraft from 1947 to 1957. In 1957 he became a corporate director of Douglas Aircraft Company, a post he held until 1961, when he returned to Hughes as a consultant, with the freedom to pursue a long-desired goal of being a journalist. He had already coauthored three books with H. H. Arnold: This Flying Game (1936), Winged Warfare (1941), and Army Fliers (1942). In 1964 he began a newspaper column in the San Angelo Standard Times that continued for eighteen years and was syndicated by Copley News Services in 700 newspapers. In 1974 he transferred to the Los Angeles Times Syndicate. He wrote from the point of view of a military man on security matters. Between 1957 and 1981, 329 of his articles appeared in military periodicals. In 1972 he became the founding president of the United States Strategic Institute.



Among his more than fifty decorations were the Congressional Gold Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Order of the Partisan Star (First Class), the Silver Star, and the Wright Trophy; he was also made a Knight of the British Empire. He was promoted from lieutenant general to general by an act of Congress in 1985.



Eaker married Leah Chase about 1930; the couple had no children, and the marriage ended in divorce the year it began. On November 23, 1931, he married Ruth Huff Apperson. General Eaker died on August 6, 1987, at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. He was survived by his wife.



TOPICS: VetsCoR
KEYWORDS: 8thairforce; biography; eaker; freeperfoxhole; generaleaker; strategicbombing; usairforce; usarmyaircorps; veterans; wwii
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 181-182 next last
To: SAMWolf
Insert Twilight Zone Theme

Insert JAWS theme...

121 posted on 01/12/2004 10:30:37 AM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 113 | View Replies]

To: Matthew Paul

Thanks Matt. We don't hear much about the Polish Air Force at the beginning of the War here in the States.

122 posted on 01/12/2004 10:32:14 AM PST by SAMWolf (Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for <>...ribbit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 117 | View Replies]

To: Matthew Paul
Thanks Matt for the ELK info. Pretty plane.
123 posted on 01/12/2004 10:32:34 AM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 117 | View Replies]

To: snippy_about_it
LOL!
124 posted on 01/12/2004 10:32:59 AM PST by SAMWolf (Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for <>...ribbit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 121 | View Replies]

To: snippy_about_it
With eyeball aircraft tracking, those people were correct. The high altitude bomber could not be intercepted effeciently enough to make a difference - except by using RADAR and ground controlled intercept calculations, requiring good radio communication. Even in 1936 high altitude bombers could not be intercepted well enough to make a difference.
125 posted on 01/12/2004 11:59:03 AM PST by Iris7 ("Duty, Honor, Country". The first of these is Duty, and is known only through His Grace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Iris7
That's true. Radar played a big role. I could do a weeks worth of threads on radar development alone. I'm doing three days on night flying and had to leave out quite a bit about radar or it would have taken a week to read!
126 posted on 01/12/2004 12:11:18 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 125 | View Replies]

To: snippy_about_it
The pups are fine, just figuratively in the doghouse. Last week with temperatures in the minus 30's, I had to leave them indoors while I went to work. They didn't like it, so they tore up a pillow and a down comforter. It's warmed up now to the single digits so they can tolerate it outdoors during the day.
127 posted on 01/12/2004 12:15:07 PM PST by CholeraJoe (I'm a Veteran. I live in Montana. I own assault weapons. I vote. Any questions?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 98 | View Replies]

To: Iris7
Hi Iris7.

Guilio Douhet's Theory of Air Power

Guilio Douhet was an Italian. He believed that the airplane had completely changed warfare and that airplanes would win wars quickly and decisively. The first priority was to gain command of the air. With command of the air, an air force would be free to operate whenever and wherever it desired. There was, as yet, no effective defence against air attacks. Having achieved command of the air, pilots would then destroy the enemy's will to resist by conducting aerial bombing on his cities, industrial centres and civilian population. It was thought that civilians were not prepared for the effects of war and the bombing of population centres would create panic among the people. People would then pressurize the government to negotiate for peace. Douhet believed the bomber could fight its way to and from the target, hence the origin of the phrase 'the bomber will always get through.'

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/AVbombertheory.htm.
128 posted on 01/12/2004 12:19:34 PM PST by SAMWolf (Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for <>...ribbit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 125 | View Replies]

Comment #129 Removed by Moderator

To: CholeraJoe
Well if I remember correctly, pups are pups til about 18 months and will chew what they can when we leave them alone.

It's nice to hear you kept them inside from the cold.
130 posted on 01/12/2004 12:48:09 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 127 | View Replies]

To: Matthew Paul
I never heard of them but that's to be expected. I'll leave it to the rest of the Foxhole and Sam of course to know about it. I'll bet someone does.

Sam knows everything :-)

131 posted on 01/12/2004 12:49:45 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: Professional Engineer
Aiming High bump backatcha.
132 posted on 01/12/2004 12:56:58 PM PST by Jen
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: SAMWolf; snippy_about_it; Al
It was Otto von Bismark who said, "Laws are like
sausages, it is better not to see them being made."
133 posted on 01/12/2004 1:01:33 PM PST by Soaring Feather (~ I do Poetry ~ and ~ Dream a Lot ~)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: bentfeather
Laws are like sausages..

LOL!

134 posted on 01/12/2004 1:02:44 PM PST by snippy_about_it (Fall in --> The FReeper Foxhole. America's History. America's Soul.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 133 | View Replies]

To: Matthew Paul
I've heard about the vatious anti-tank rifles being used but not about this ammunition. If you find anything out about it let me know. it's be interesting to see what's out there.
135 posted on 01/12/2004 1:10:12 PM PST by SAMWolf (Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for <>...ribbit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: bentfeather
But most most sausages taste good, laws usually leave a bad taste. :-)
136 posted on 01/12/2004 1:11:24 PM PST by SAMWolf (Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for <>...ribbit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 133 | View Replies]

To: Matthew Paul
7.92 mm Rifle Anti-Tank Mascerzek

During the Polish invasion, the Germans captured large numbers of these Polish designed anti-tank rifles. These were used extensively in the earlier part of World War 2. It is similar in design to a Mauser Rifle firing a normal cartridge, but is longer and heavier and a muzzle brake has been attached. It led to the development of the German rifles known as the Pz B38 and Pz B39.

The polish Maroszek WZ 35 had been conceived and developed by Lt.Col. T. Felsztyn and the engineer Jósef Maroszek in the early 1930ies. First trials in late 1935 proved unsuccessful, because the extremely stressed barrel endured only about 20 shots. After intensive research and testing an almost perfect relation between ammunition characteristics and barrel construction was reached. The new weapon had a life expectancy of 300 shots. It was integrated into the army in November 1935, simulated battles showed a more than satisfying performance as an anti-tank rifle.

However, the rifle was considered so important that a strict veil of secrecy was put over the whole project, and the delivery crates - containig one Maroszek WZ 35, three replacement barrels and three full ammo magazines - were sealed with the strict order that the seal was only to be broken under direct orders of the defense minister. Until July 1938 only a very restricted and select group of people (again under strict nondisclosure - orders) - mostly military commanders of different command levels - was shown the weapon. The result was that in many cases the soldiers that were to use it didn't even see the weapon before WW II started with the german invasion of poland! Due to all this, this reasonably performing weapon saw only very limited use in the polish war against the attacking germans; many polish soldiers ended the short german invasion of Poland still ignorant of the weapon! The germans captured considerable numbers of these weapons still unissued in the armories and storages; it received the german designation Panzerbüchse 35(p) ("Tank Rifle", the suffix "p" for "polnisch") - abbreviated as PzB 35(p) - but was also called Panzerbüchse 770(p) and was issued to german troops. Some of the weapons were also given to and employed by italian troops. At least 630 of these polish tank rifles were incorporated into the Wehrmacht and used in the war against the French in 1940

The work on high-speed rifle ammunition began in Poland in late 20's - early 30's. After the completion, work began on a suitable rifle. The winning design, kb ppanc wz. 1935 (rifle, anti-tank model 1935) was designed by Jozef Maroszek in early 1930's. There are no exact data on when the work began or how it progressed since from the beginning the rifle and ammunition were classified. The kb wz. 1935 was adopted in November 1935 and 7610 rifles were ordered in Fabryka Karabinow (Rifle Factory) in Warsaw. The exact number made before the outbreak of W.W.II is unknown but the highest receiver serial numbers of surviving specimens are in 6500 range.

In the beginning, the rifles were stored at central storage facilities. The delivery to the army units started in April 1939; the last rifles were delivered to units as late as in August 1939. The orders specified that the crate containing the rifle must not be opened before the start of hostilities. The weapon itself was demonstrated only to a handful of soldiers under oath. Sounds like a problem of keeping a "secret Weapon" too secret.

137 posted on 01/12/2004 1:20:56 PM PST by SAMWolf (Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for <>...ribbit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 129 | View Replies]

To: SAMWolf
Okay. Now that is Schrage musik!
138 posted on 01/12/2004 1:37:54 PM PST by Colonel_Flagg (Patience. Patience. Patience.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 119 | View Replies]

To: Colonel_Flagg
It's always amazing what man can develop when there's enough need for it. They found the British weak spot and exploited it. A lot of the bombers never knew what hit them
139 posted on 01/12/2004 1:59:23 PM PST by SAMWolf (Meddle not in the affairs of wizards, for <>...ribbit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 138 | View Replies]

Comment #140 Removed by Moderator


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 101-120121-140141-160 ... 181-182 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
VetsCoR
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson