named Supreme Allied Commander in December 1943, he proposed to use his existing team of subordinate commanders, including Lieutenant General Jimmy Doolittle, in key positions. Doolittle was named Eighth Air Force Commander, and Arnold concurred with the change. Eaker was reassigned as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, previous commander Tedder having been selected by Eisenhower to plan the air operations for the Normandy invasion. Eaker had under his command the Twelfth and Fifteenth Air Forces and the British Desert and Balkan Air Forces. He did not approve of the plan to bomb Monte Cassino in February 1944, considering it a dubious military target, but ultimately signed off the mission and gave in to pressure from ground commanders. Historians of the era now generally believe Eaker's skepticism was correct and that the ancient abbey at Monte Cassino could have been preserved without jeopardizing the allied advance through Italy. He personally led the first raid of Operation Frantic on 2 July 1944, flying in a B-17 called Yankee Doodle II and landing at a Soviet base at Polotava in the Ukraine. On April 30, 1945, General Eaker was named deputy commander of the Army Air Forces and Chief of the Air Staff. He retired on August 31, 1947, and was promoted to lieutenant general in the newly established United States Air Force on the retired list June 29, 1948. Almost 40 years after his retirement, Congress attempted to pass special legislation awarding four-star status in the U.S. Air Force to General Eaker, prompted by retired Air Force Reserve major general and Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). The legislation stalled in the House, which prompted Goldwater to only seek confirmation via the Senate, which was arguably unlawful because of statutory restrictions on general officers that required them to be in active service. On April 26, 1985, Chief of Staff General Charles A. Gabriel and Ruth Eaker, the general's wife, pinned on his fourth star. Later, in 1986, the Comptroller General ruled that the promotion was unlawful for pay or benefit purposes due to the lack of implementing legislation. Civilian career Ten days before the Democratic Party primary runoff election of the 1948 United States Senate election in Texas on Saturday, August 28, 1948, Eaker spoke in support of candidate Lyndon B. Johnson. Coke R. Stevenson's campaign attacked Eaker, and Eaker was defended by other prominent military officers and Johnson. Criticizing a prominent