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Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Ms. Polly Jensen

John D Eden was born in Chicago in 1921. He was known throughout his life as Dave, to avoid confusion with his dad, another John. He listened, with his mom and dad and the rest of America, to radio reports of Charles Lindbergh's historic flight, and his love of airplanes began. He dreamed of becoming a pilot, but his dad, the son of German immigrants, wanted Dave to graduate from college first. Dave was a senior at Purdue University when Pearl Harbor was bombed, and again, like so many Americans, signed up for the Army Air Corp.
He realized his dream of becoming a pilot, training on a PT 19. He married his college sweetheart, Janet Thompson, and went to fight the war. John was stationed in the jungles of Burma, and his assignment was flying supplies into China in a C47.
That entailed crossing the Himalayan Mountains, across what came to be known as the 'aluminum trail', and called 'flying the hump'. The 'aluminum trail' referred to the multitude of airplanes littering the ground. Although the mountains weren't as high as Mt. Everest at 27000 feet, they did reach considerable greater height than a C47 could fly. The weather over the Himalayas was fierce, and there were no sophisticated navigational aids. Dave's flight jacket carried a patch on the back that said, in Chinese, that he was a friend. Happily, he never crashed and returned home to Chicago safe and sound.
Dave continued to fly in the reserves after returning home, attaining the rank of Captain, and briefly became a pilot for United before being laid off. He made his living as a mechanical engineer, but his hobby and his passion was building and flying model airplanes. He continued flying models though the years until his death at age 84. His last model, and his biggest, was a radio control scale replica PT19.
Dave regaled three generations of children, grand children and great grand children with stories of his time in the jungle, and his adventures with his jungle friends, Tom Tom the elephant and Geronimo the monkey. He told tall tales of flying the C47 in reverse, and taking out Japanese zeros. Some of his stories are recorded in his book, "Tom Tom the Elephant, and Other War Stories for Kids".
Dave was an American hero; a great patriot, pilot, son, husband, father and friend. He is greatly missed.