Springfield Daily News, Friday, December 31, 1943 pages 1-2

BOMBARDIER IS MISSING IN ACTION

Believed Lost During Raid on Northwest Germany

A serious-minded young man, near the realization of his ambition to become an agent in the FBI, talked to the pastor of the church where he had taught Sunday school and where he had been among the leaders of Christian Endeavor.

That was back in December of 1941. That country was at war and the young man, Floyd Waldo Eakman, told the minister, the Rev. Floyd H. Pence of the First Christian Church, that he had decided to enlist in the Army Air Forces.

Eakman subsequently became a bombardier on a Flying Fortress, was commissioned a second lieutenant and was sent to England.

Thursday night, his father, T.F. Eakman, 937 W. Pleasant st., received a message from the War Department informing him that his son had been missing in action since Dec. 16.

Because Lieut. Eakman, 27 years of age, was a veteran of numerous raids on the European continent, it is believed that he was lost while on a raid on northwest Germany as the Eighth Air Force hammered fleets at Helgoland Bay and Bremen, a Nazi U-boat nest.

Lieut. Eakman was the holder of the Air Medal and two Oak Leaf Clusters. Just previously to the raid from which his plane failed to return, he had been injured, cut by glass splinters after a piece of flak crashed through the plane just six inches from where he was stationed. Consequently, Army circles said that since he had been injured once before, he was due to receive the Purple Heart.

The members of his family, his father, four sisters, Pauline, Eloise, Florence and Betty, and his brother, Harold, who only recently was given a medical discharge after serving a year in the Navy – heard from him often.

Their last letter arrived just two days ago. In the letter, dated Dec. 15, Lieut. Eakman described some of his experiences and said that he expected to get home by spring.

Both his fiancée, Miss Freda McClure, and Rev. Pence also had received letters from him recently.

During his Springfield High School career, Waldo, as he was called, concentrated on his studies and was graduated cum laude when he was only 16 years old. He later attended the Springfield Business College.

He enlisted in April, 1942, but was not called in service until August. He received his wings and commission in April, 1943 at Big Springs, Tex.

Prior to his enlistment, he was employed in Washington by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and was training to become an agent in the organization.

Of Lieut. Eakman, Rev. Pence, a close friend, said “He was one of the finest young men I have ever known.”