Merle Stimmel Eaton

Merle Stimmel Eaton was born on August 11, 1921 in Waitsburg, Washington to Clarence and Charlotte May Stimmel Eaton. His father worked as a farmer. Eaton graduated from Waitsburg High School in 1940 and attended Washington State College (WSC) during the 1940-1941 academic year as a Mechanical Engineering major. He was a member of the Associated Engineers club.  Eaton went to work for Boeing in Seattle, Washington after leaving WSC, and he was later employed by Leonard and Slate, a general contracting business. He enlisted as an Aviation Cadet in the United States Army Air Corps Reserves on March 12, 1943. Eaton trained at Thunderbird Field in Phoenix, Arizona; Merced Army Air Field in Merced, California; and Stockton Field in Stockton, California. He received his commission as a Second Lieutenant and was sent to Saipan on December 5, 1944 with the 500th Bombardment Group of the 73rd Bomb Wing. He was declared missing effective April 4, 1945 after his plane and crew didn't return from a bombing raid near Tokyo; he was officially presumed dead on April 5, 1946.  Eaton is memorialized at Tablets of the Missing, Honolulu Memorial (Punchbowl) in Honlulu, Hawaii.