The CT Fallen Heroes Foundation will award Logan Driscoll with a scholarship in honor of SSG Richard “Rick” Eaton at its 8th annual golf tournament.
SSG Richard Selden Eaton, Jr., graduated from Guilford High School in 1985. He continued his education at Seoul University for language studies, the University of Connecticut and Southern Connecticut State University with a major in International Studies.
Throughout his 18-year Army career, 13 Active Duty and 5 in the Army Reserves, SSG Eaton served in numerous duty positions that included extensive tours in South Korea with the 2nd ID and two tours with JTF-B in Honduras. He also served on special missions in the Philippines (Feb., 1986) and Panama (Dec., 1989). He joined B Company 323rd MI BN as a reservist in 1998 and worked as a DC area contractor with Sytex and BAE. While working for Sytex, he authored “Introduction to CHATS and CHASIS (the Army CI Human Intelligence Automated Tool Set and All-Source Integration System),” Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin, 24: 24-27 October-December 1998. He was a co-founder and co-moderator of the online Army Counterintelligence Discussion Group (ACIDG-L). While working as a BAE contractor for G2, he and other staff escaped death on September 11, 2001 due to the remodeling of their Pentagon office. A G2 staff member and an electrical contractor were killed by the hijacked airliner while making final plans for computer installations.
SSG Eaton was also a former civilian employee of INSCOM at Fort Belvoir, VA. Four months before his 2003 OIF deployment he was a contractor in South Korea at Kunsan AFB. Though accepted by a South Korean reserve unit, he cancelled the paperwork and chose to deploy with the 323rd MI BN. He was a tireless NCO, superb trainer and a professional soldier. He was the Bravo Company Training NCO and a co-author of the CI portion of the Battalion Tactical SOP. During his mobilization in Kuwait and Iraq he served with distinction on many assignments while attached to the 221st MI BN, the 223rd MI BN and the 3/3 ACR.
In his last assignment SSG Eaton conducted missions for the 3/3 ACR as a CI HUMINT team leader in the Sunni Triangle region of Iraq. After a protracted firefight on August 11, 2003 in Hit, in which he rescued a heat-stricken soldier under live fire, he died after medical treatment the next night from heat stress and rhabdomyolysis.
SSG Eaton’s awards include the Bronze Star with oak leaf cluster (one for merit and the other for valor), Army Commendation Medal (three oak leaf clusters), Army Achievement Medal (one silver and one oak leaf cluster), Good Conduct Medal (three awards), National Defense Service Medal (one star device), Army Superior Unit Award, Noncommissioned Officer Professional Development Ribbon (two devices), Army Service Ribbon, Overseas Service Ribbon (five awards), and the Expert Marksmanship Badge with bars for rifle, pistol and grenade. He was nominated for the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame and received the Thomas G. Knowlton Award and the 3/3ACR’s Order of the Spur.