page_title: Brian Eaton
section_title: Rise to senior command
hierarchical_section_title: Brian Eaton / Post-war career / Rise to senior command
caption_attribution_description: Kimpo, South Korea. 1951-10. Wing Commander Brian A. Eaton, Commanding Officer No. 78 Wing RAAF, Williamtown NSW, in the cockpit of a Meteor aircraft during a visit to No. 77 Squadron RAAF.
context_page_description: Air Vice Marshal Brian Alexander Eaton, CB, CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Born in Tasmania and raised in Victoria, he joined the RAAF in 1936 and was promoted to flight lieutenant on the outbreak of World War II. He held training positions before being posted to No. 3 Squadron at the beginning of 1943, flying P-40 Kittyhawk fighter-bombers in North Africa. Despite being shot down three times within ten days soon after arriving, Eaton quickly rose to become the unit's commanding officer, and by year's end had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. His leadership earned him the Distinguished Service Order and Bar in 1944–45, and command of No. 239 Wing RAF in Italy, with the temporary rank of group captain. He was also awarded the US Silver Star in 1946 in recognition of his war service.
  In the decade following World War II, Eaton led No. 81 Wing in Japan, and No. 78 Wing in Malta. He commanded RAAF Base Williamtown from 1957 to 1959, after which he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
context_section_description: Eaton was posted to Britain following the end of World War II, and attended RAF Staff College the next year. In September 1947, he was appointed Officer Commanding No. 81 (Fighter) Wing in Japan, as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force (BCOF). The Australian contingent initially comprised three combat units, Nos. 76, 77 and 82 Squadrons, as well as No. 381 (Base) Squadron, No. 481 (Maintenance) Squadron, No. 111 Mobile Fighter Control Unit, and No. 5 Airfield Construction Squadron. By mid-1949, it had been reduced to No. 77 Squadron alone, and Headquarters BCOF had been disbanded; Eaton served as "RAAF Component" commander for the remainder of his tenure in Japan. As well as surveillance patrols, training and inter-service exercises, the Australian airmen took part in ceremonial flypasts. On one such occasion, over Tokyo, Eaton led his formation of thirty Mustangs into cloud with a faulty artificial horizon in his plane, with the result that he and his comrades, who were following his lead, became badly disorientated and were fortunate to avoid collision; RAAF historian Alan Stephens considered this a not-atypical example of the casual attitude to flying safety exhibited at the time by the veteran pilots of World War II.
  Returning to Australia in November 1949, Eaton became Deputy Director of Training at the Department of Air, Canberra, where he remained until 1951. Later that year, he was appointed Officer Commanding No. 78 (Fighter) Wing at RAAF Base Williamtown, New South Wales. He had reverted to a substantive rank of wing commander since leaving Japan, as the RAAF shrank dramatically with demobilisation and many senior officers lost the temporary or acting ranks they had gained in wartime. On 15 September, he landed a Vampire jet fighter at Point Cook with one flat tyre and one wheel retracted, after its undercarriage had become jammed. The plane skidded off the runway but Eaton was able to walk away, reportedly remarking "Well, I didn't wreck it". He married Josephine Rumbles at Toorak Presbyterian Church in Melbourne on 10 May 1952; the couple later had a son and two daughters. Following Britain's request to the Australian government for a Commonwealth garrison in the Mediterranean, in July 1952 Eaton led No. 78 Wing on deployment to RAF Hal Far near Valletta, Malta, where its combat squadrons, Nos. 75 and 76, were equipped with leased Vampire FB9s. As the overseas posting was for a minimum of two years, his new bride and the families of other staff were permitted to make the journey as well. The Australian airmen participated in many NATO exercises while stationed at Malta, and one year took first and second place in the Middle Eastern Gunnery Contest for the "Imshi" Mason Cup. Promoted to the substantive rank of group captain on 1 January 1953, Eaton was granted command of RAF Ta'Kali when the wing transferred there from Hal Far in June.
  Completing his tour with No. 78 Wing in mid-1954, Eaton joined Air Vice Marshal Alister Murdoch on an international mission to examine potential new fighter, bomber, transport and training aircraft for the RAAF. The team's report advocated the F-104 Starfighter as a replacement for the CAC Sabre, as well as nuclear-capable British V-bomber strike aircraft to augment Australia's Canberra bombers, and C-130 Hercules transports to replace the C-47 Dakota. While the proposals for V-bombers and the F-104 were not taken up, the Australian Government acquired the C-130 in 1958. Described as second only to the General Dynamics F-111C as the "most significant" purchase by the RAAF, the Hercules gave the Air Force its first strategic airlift capability, which in years to come would provide a "lifeline" to Australian forces deployed to Malaya, Vietnam, and other parts of the South-West Pacific. The mission also recommended the locally built Vampire T35 as a jet trainer for No. 1 Applied Flying Training School; sixty-nine were later delivered by the de Havilland factory in Bankstown, New South Wales. Eaton served as RAAF Director of Operations during 1955–56, and as Officer Com
caption: Wing Commander Eaton in a No. 77 Squadron Meteor during a visit to Korea, October 1951
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