Home |  PublicationsEncyclopedia |  Eaker, Ira Clarence

The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Capt. Ira Eaker and a Lockheed Orion airplane
(23115.72, Arch Dixon Collection, OHS).

EAKER, IRA CLARENCE (1896–1987).

A pioneer aviator, an air-power strategist, and one of the "fathers" of the United States Air Force, Ira Clarence Eaker was born April 13, 1896, in Field Creek, Texas, to Young Yancy and Dona Lee Graham Eaker. The family moved to Kenefic, Oklahoma, in 1912. Ira Eaker graduated from Southeastern State Normal School (now Southeastern Oklahoma State University) at Durant in 1917. After serving as a pilot in World War I, Eaker continued flying. He participated in the 1926 Pan-American Goodwill Flight and in 1929 was the pilot of the Question Mark, setting an endurance record while pioneering air-to-air refueling. He made the first instrument flight across the United States in 1936.

During World War II Eaker commanded the U.S. Army Eighth Air Force and convinced Winston Churchill of the value of daylight bombing. He later commanded Allied Air Forces in the Mediterranean and served as deputy commander of U.S. Army Air Forces. Following retirement in 1947, Eaker headed the Hughes Aircraft Company and was a syndicated columnist. By a special act of Congress he attained four-star status in 1985. Eaker married Leah Chase in 1922, and they divorced seven years later. In 1931 he married Ruth Apperson and was married to her until his death in Washington, D.C., on August 6, 1987.

Keith Tolman

See Also

WORLD WAR II

Browse By Topic

Military

Explore

People
Military

Learn More

Henry H. Arnold and Ira C. Eaker, This Flying Game (3d ed.; New York: Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1943).

"Notes and Documents," The Chronicles of Oklahoma 25 (Winter 1947).

James Parton, "Air Force Spoken Here": General Ira Eaker and the Command of the Air (Bethesda, Md.: Adler & Adler, 1986).

Roger J. Spiller, ed., Dictionary of American Military Biography, Vol. 1 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984).

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Keith Tolman, “Eaker, Ira Clarence,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=EA010.

Published January 15, 2010

Copyright and Terms of Use

No part of this site may be construed as in the public domain.

Copyright to all articles and other content in the online and print versions of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History is held by the Oklahoma Historical Society (OHS). This includes individual articles (copyright to OHS by author assignment) and corporately (as a complete body of work), including web design, graphics, searching functions, and listing/browsing methods. Copyright to all of these materials is protected under United States and International law.

Users agree not to download, copy, modify, sell, lease, rent, reprint, or otherwise distribute these materials, or to link to these materials on another web site, without authorization of the Oklahoma Historical Society. Individual users must determine if their use of the Materials falls under United States copyright law's "Fair Use" guidelines and does not infringe on the proprietary rights of the Oklahoma Historical Society as the legal copyright holder of The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and part or in whole.