Eugene Hoy Barksdale

Lieutenant Eugene Hoy Barksdale was a noted aviator and was a First Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Service and Army Air Corps. The new Barksdale Field in Bossier City/Shreveport, Louisiana, was named for him on

Early years

Born in Goshen Springs, Mississippi, Barksdale had one brother and five sisters. He attended Mississippi State College in Starkville for three years before leaving to enter officers training camp at Fort Logan H. Roots in Little Rock, Arkansas. He volunteered for the aviation section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps as a Private First Class.

Life and career

Barksdale completed aviation ground school in Austin, Texas. In September 1917, he embarked to England and received flight training with the Royal Flying Corps and was posted to No. 41 Squadron RAF, on 31 July 1918. He later became a founding member of the U.S. Army's 25th Aero Squadron. In 1919, Barksdale was assigned to Mitchel Field, New York, where he married Lura Lee Dunn in 1921. On 8 March 1924 then Lt Barksdale and his navigator, Lt Bradley Jones, flew a DH-4B, powered by a 400-horsepower Liberty engine from McCook Field, OH to Mitchel Field using instruments only.

Death

In August 1926, Barksdale was testing a Douglas O-2 observation airplane for spin characteristics over McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio, and was unable to recover from a flat spin. While attempting to bail out of the stricken plane, his parachute caught in the wing's bracing wires, and he went down with the plane and was killed. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.