. Colonel Eugene Terry Yarbrough was born on December 21, 1913 in Ozark, AL, the son of Samuel Knox Yarbrough (1883-19654) and Maddie Terry (1887-1983). Eugene's grandparents were Henry C. Yarbrough (1844-1932), an old Confederate soldier of the 53rd Partisan Ranger Regiment and Mary S. Campbell (1847-1910). Eugene was not a Pensacolian by birth but was well known in the area and had scores of relatives that resided here. One was his first cousin Dean Yarbrough and his aunt Miss Essie Yarbrough and his other aunt Mrs. Rosa Reid Campbell Barrow, wife of Captain Willis Green Barrow (1856-1937). Captain Barrow was a renowned Pensacolian that earned his fame at the skipper of the "Tarpon" that sunk and killed him in 1937.
As to Eugene, he was born in Ozark but raised in Guntersville, Alabama where his father supporter his family working in a cotton gin mill. But Eugene decided to enter the military, so on February 18, 1938 he entered the US Army "flying cadet" program and upon completion entered the reserves on 2-1-1939 as a 2Lt. After the war broke out he was activated and sent to Alaska to fight the Japanese but while there, he met and married Miss Edythe Mildred Young on April 13, 1942 in Juneau.
While in Alaska, Yarbrough was credited with pioneering techniques of flying small planes for reconnaissance and rescue work. At one time, he landed his plane on an ice floe in the "Turnigan Arm Waterway," to rescue a stranded pilot who had bailed out from his fighter plane. The maneuver was considered impossible, but he flew his aircraft into a strong wind over the floe until he was at a standstill and lowered the plane down onto it. He picked up the downed pilot using the same maneuver but left his co-pilot since there was no room. He returned later to pick up his co-pilot using the same trick. Another time, he staged a planned simulation raid on Anchorage to educate the citizens since Japanese forces already occupied the Aleutians. Witnesses stated later they saw him fly his craft under the power lines on Fourth Avenue, which is highly unrecommended!
By 1943, the young couple was transferred to California until early November 1944. At that time, he received orders to Eglin Airfield in Panama City, FL for further flight training. On the way to his new duty station, he and Edythe and their new son Eugene Jr. (1943) stopped over in Pensacola to visit the Yarbrough/Barrow family.
Then on December 15, 1944, now Lt. Colonel Yarbrough was on a training flight in a single engine attack plane heading back to Eglin from Washington, D.C. But he encountered strong head winds for most of the way, which in turn ate up more of his fuel than normal. When it started getting too low, he decided to land at Napier Field, Alabama and refuel. As he was about to land, his fuel suddenly ran out and the engine died. Rather than attempt a glide landing at night, he chose to bail out. Unfortunately, when he did the tail of his plane struck him, killing him instantly. Ironically, he had already been slated for a full colonelcy and was appointed Eglin's deputy commander for supply maintenance transportation at the proving ground command the very day he was killed. And even more ironic, he was killed within twenty miles of his birthplace in Ozark, AL.
His body was recovered and sent to Arlington National Cemetery for burial. Edythe would remarry in 1948 to John Tucker Wilson (1924-2004) in Washington DC.
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