| Birth: | Aug. 2, 1912
Welch
McDowell County
West Virginia, USA | | Death: | Sep. 3, 2010
Shreveport
Caddo Parish
Louisiana, USA | 
Military Figure. Known as "Mr. B-52," U.S. Air Force general officer who introduced the B-52 Stratofortress bomber into general service in 1955, flying the first example to Castle Air Force Base, California. As commander of the 93rd Bomb Wing at Castle, he also led its earlier acceptance of the B-47 medium bomber. Eubank earlier served as commander of the 2nd Bomb Group and on the senior staff of the new Strategic Air Command. His work on the B-47 transition made him a protege of SAC commander Gen. Curtis LeMay. Eubank was a pilot and commander of the first around-the-world jet mission in 1957 that led to his wing receiving the coveted MacKay Trophy for the most meritorious flight of the year. In 1958, he commanded a 93rd Wing KC-135 flight that established a non-stop world speed record from Tokyo to Washington, 13 hours and 47 minutes, and an unrefueled jet distance world record of 10,288 miles from Tokyo to the Azores. That demonstrated the ability of jet tankers to maintain pace with the generations of jet bombers, allowing for the global control of the skies that later became key to SAC operations. A native of West Virginia and originally a mine engineering product of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, he instead joined the fledgling Army Air Corps as a flying cadet in early 1936. He first served with the 3rd Attack Group and 27th Bomb Group at Barksdale Field, La. He was commander of the 91st Bomb Squadron in the Philippines in 1941. After the Japanese attack destroyed the unit's bombers, Eubank took his fliers to the Bataan Peninsula where they served as provisional infantry, then to Corregidor where he was evacuated by a U.S. Navy submarine to Java. After Jave fell to the Japanese he flew to India to serve on the staff of Gen. Lewis Brereton in forming the 10th Air Force. Postwar, he held the commands in which the ground-breaking work with the B-47, B-52 and tankers, ending his career as deputy commander of 2nd Air Force, at Barksdale Air Force Base, where he had begun his career. He retired in 1965, with more than 4,500 hours, including 60 combat hours. (bio by: John Andrew Prime)
Search Amazon for William Eubank | | | Burial:
Northwest Louisiana Veterans Cemetery
Keithville
Caddo Parish
Louisiana, USA
Plot: Section 4, grave 168
GPS (lat/lon): 32.26682, -93.9328 |
Maintained by: Find A Grave
Originally Created by: John Andrew Prime
Record added: Sep 03, 2010
Find A Grave Memorial# 58116274 |
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