Eagan, Buford W.
Capt. Buford W. Eagan, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Eagan, Olney, husband of Helen Corley, Lubbock, graduate at Olney High. Entered Army AC in 1941, served as Flight Commander with 15th Air Force. Awarded Silver Star, 2 OLC, and Purple Heart. Killed over Vienna, Austria, in 1944.
Capt. Buford W. Eagan was born in Olney, on January 15, 1919. He was the son of James Johnathan Eagan and Mattie Easley Ivey.
Buford joined the Army Air Corps on November 10, 1941, while a student at Texas Tech College. He received flight training at San Antonio’s Brooks Field.
Buford and Helen Corley married in Olney on December 16, 1942.
Capt. Eagan served as a flight commander with the 762nd BS, 460th Bomb Group, 15th Air Force. He was killed while piloting his B-24 bomber over Vienna, Austria on July 10, 1944. Eagan was last seen in the pilot seat of his aircraft as the co-pilot bailed out. His last known words were giving the order for the crew to abandon the aircraft.
Capt. Eagan was decorated with the Silver Star and Purple Heart. He was survived by his wife and their two children – Mary and Mitchell.
Buford’s name is memorialized along with his fellow airmen who perished on July 10, 1944 on a marker at Zachary Taylor National Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.