Traveling southwest to New Orleans through southern Mississippi, our IFR clearance always includes a pair of VORs, EWA and LBY, to steer clear of the numerous military facilities in the area. I queried Memphis Center about their names, Kewanee and Eaton.
Baron 658M: “Center, I can understand the name Kewanee and ID of EWA, but do you know how they got Eaton out of LBY?”
Memphis Center was quick with a response, almost as if he’d prepared it: “Sir, there isn’t enough government money to answer that question.”
Travis Witherington
Knoxville, Tennessee
Camp Shelby is about 10 miles south east of the VOR.
So it should be called Shelby, not Eaton.
As often occurs, names of places and things come from people who were prominent politicians or donors. Don’t know if there’s any connection, but in nearby Hattiesburg, MS, there’s an Eaton Elementary School whose name derived from an early settler, George Eaton, who donated the land where the school was built.
Honoring Eaton, OH, a small town nearby, maybe. I had a friend who flew for the FAA, determining waypoints during the early 60s. He help name an intersection “Moron,” its was in reference to the Morongo Indian Rez area near PSP, but with a twist. 😜