General Ira C. Eaker

The Handbook of Texas says Eaker's father was a tenant farmer, and that the family lived at Hills and on a farm outside Eden before moving to Oklahoma in 1912. In 1929 Eaker, Carl Spaatz and Elwood R. Quesada kept the Fokker Question Mark aloft for more than 150 hours, refueling by hose from another plane, and in 1936 he made the first blind, instrument-only transcontinental flight. He flew in the first American B-17 attack in occupied France, on Rouen on August 17, 1942. Congress granted him a fourth star in 1985, and he was buried at Arlington.

What the plaque 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)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Presidio de San Saba — 20 mi
  The ruins of the largest Spanish presidio in Texas, built in 1757 to guard a mission to the Lipan Apache, where the Comanche and their allies first turned back Spain's frontier.

More markers nearby

• Eden — steps away
• Arroyo de Juan Lorenzo — 20 mi
• Mission Santa Cruz de San Saba — 20 mi
• Real Presidio de San Saba — 20 mi