Fredrick I. Eglin

Who was Fredrick I. Eglin?

Frederick Irving Eglin was a career officer in the United States Army Air Service and United States Army Air Corps. He was killed in an air crash on January 1, 1937, and Eglin Field, Florida, was named in his honor on August 4, 1937.

Eglin joined the Indiana National Guard in 1911 while a student at Wabash College, and first began Federal service in June 1916, serving on the U.S. border with Mexico. In 1917 he was commissioned in the Indiana Guard after the United States entered World War I and was assigned to pilot training. After earning his rating as a pilot and a commission in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Eglin remained at the school as a flying instructor. Eglin received a Regular commission in the Air Service on July 1, 1920 and commanded several squadrons in the United States and the Philippines.

He served three years as a senior instructor and commander at the Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field, Texas, after which he studied at both the Air Corps Tactical School and the Command and General Staff College. After a four year tour at the ACTS as an instructor and department director, Eglin was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to the headquarters of the GHQ Air Force, where he was serving as a staff officer at the time of his death.