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"What exactly is a headpiece to the Staff of Ra?"
Major Eaton[src]

Major Eaton was a US Army officer and intelligence agent for the United States federal government.

Biography[]

Major Eaton was a United States Army Intelligence bureaucrat based out of Washington DC. He was teamed with Colonel Musgrove, to keep an eye on Adolf Hitler's international activities which included the Führer's interest in artifacts with supposed supernatural properties. Both men weren't popular among their departments, being assigned precisely Hitler's case because the Defense Department preferred to focus on cracking German codes or checking in the status of weaponry development.[2]

In 1934, Eaton and Musgrove monitored the Adventure Society, a group that was collecting powerful artifacts across the globe.[3]

MusgroveAndEaton

Musgrove and Eaton at Hangar 51.

Believing the members could be useful to them, Eaton and Musgrove arranged to have the artifacts stolen and left a trail for the protegé of Society member Professor John Allen to follow which led back to a warehouse in Nevada. When the Society member arrived, Eaton and his partner revealed their ruse and their true intentions: they wanted Allen's team to join them as "top men."[3]

In 1936, Army Intelligence had intercepted a Nazi communiqué that mentioned Abner Ravenwood and the Staff of Ra. Eaton and Musgrove sought out Indiana Jones, a former student of Ravenwood, at Marshall College, Connecticut to learn more information about Ravenwood, Tanis, and the headpiece to the Staff of Ra. After Jones and Marcus Brody made the connection to the Ark of the Covenant, Eaton and Musgrove decided to hire Jones to recover the Ark for the United States before the Nazis could retrieve it. As part of the deal, the Ark would go to Brody's museum after it was found.[1]

After Jones survived the opening of the Ark on a secret Nazi island in the Mediterranean, Eaton and Musgrove reunited with Jones and Brody back in Washington DC. While Jones and Brody argued that the Ark needed to be studied, Eaton told them that their assistance was no longer needed, and instead "top men" would be handling the further research into the Ark's powers. In fact, the Ark was secreted away for storage at the army intelligence warehouse installation in Nevada as crate #9906753.[1]

Personality and traits[]

A typical Washington bureaucrat at heart, Eaton was a pushy, officious and stubborn man who, by 1936, was used to get on his way because he was "technically" the United States of America's government. Straightforward with national security, Eaton had a tendency to interrupt others, even his fellow Colonel Musgrove, with further questions and blunt commentaries and enjoyed all the protocols, procedures and forms he could use as a buffer to keep the public eye away from his organization's operations.[2] For instance, despite promising to Indiana Jones and Marcus Brody about giving the Ark of the Covenant to the National Museum, Eaton then went back on his word and kept the Ark stored in Hangar 51, lying that he would have "top men" to study it and then take it to the museum as accorded.[1] Part of Eaton's reason to not investigate it immediately was due to his doubts about the Ark unleashing "God's wrath", fearing to be branded to be "nuts" by his superiors.[2]

Behind the scenes[]

Eaton was portrayed by the late William Hootkins in Raiders of the Lost Ark.[1] He had previously worked for Lucasfilm Ltd. portraying rebel pilot 'Porkins' in the original 1977 Star Wars movie.

At the end of the Raiders stage of LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, Eaton supervises the storing of the Ark in the gargantuan warehouse, only to become comically lost when he can't find his way through the maze-like stacks of boxes. He is unplayable in the game, unlike other characters.[4] He is omitted from its sequel along with Musgrove and the Bureaucrat.[5]

Appearances[]

EatonLego

Eaton in LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

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