Jefferson J. DeBlanc Sr.
You Tube Video - Dogfights: Guadalcanal : Jefferson DeBlanc, Wildcat stud!
Posted on 11/28/2007 7:43:31 PM PST by concentric circles
Jefferson J. DeBlanc, seated in the cockpit of a F4F Wildcat fighter plane, found ways to beat death for three years. But on Thanksgiving Day, DeBlanc, a Marine pilot in World War II's Pacific Theater, passed away from complications related to pneumonia. He was 86.
So many World War II veterans have died recently that we don't often pause to pay them the honor they're due. DeBlanc may provide a chance to make up for it. DeBlanc wore the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military honor.
DeBlanc, born in Lockport, enlisted in the Marines five months before Pearl Harbor. He was sent to Guadalcanal with only a few hours in the Wildcat. But, less than three months after finishing advanced training, he flew a mission the Guadalcanal campaign in which he shot down three Japanese planes. Two months after that mission, on Jan. 31, 1943, DeBlanc led fighters on an escort mission for U.S. dive bombers that were going up after Japanese ships. His Wildcat developed a fuel leak so bad that he told his base that he might need rescue personnel.
Even so, he continued to protect the bombers, cover their return from the target area and engage in another dogfight. DeBlanc shot down five Japanese planes before he and his plane were hit, forcing him to parachute into Vella Gulf in an area held by the enemy.
Although he was wounded in his legs and back, he swam to a nearby island and lived on coconuts for a few days before he was found by some native people. They swapped him for a bag of rice to people from another tribe. The second group led him to a Christian missionary, who got him to Allied coast-watchers, who arranged for him to be picked up by seaplane Feb. 12, 1943.
DeBlanc turned 22 three days later. And that's how you win a Medal of Honor.
DeBlanc fought at Okinawa before returning home to earn his undergraduate degree from Southwestern Louisiana Institute in 1947, two master's degrees, in physics education in 1951 and mathematics education in 1963, from Louisiana State University and a doctorate in education from McNeese State University in 1973.
We've become accustomed over the last 15 or 20 years to the fact that the World War II generation is slipping away. We can't hold on to them.
But we shouldn't let go of their stories and accomplishments, whether they were anonymous GIs or celebrated war heroes. In a time of petty arguments, when self-interest is the only interest that seems to matter, their transcendent courage should inspire us to do better.
"...On Jan. 31, 1943, then-Lt. DeBlanc took off from Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, leading a six-plane escort for a strike force of dive bombers that was to attack Japanese ships off Kolombagara Island in the Solomons. Two of the F4F-3 Wildcat fighters were crippled by mechanical problems shortly after takeoff, and the 21-year-old lieutenant, who already had three kills to his credit, was in trouble because of a malfunctioning auxiliary fuel tank. Although he knew he was too low on fuel to complete the mission and get back to Henderson Field, Lt. DeBlanc radioed his fellow pilots that he wasn't turning back.
As the American planes reached their rendezvous point, Japanese Zeros swarmed to intercept. The American pilots drove them away, but when Lt. DeBlanc saw that Japanese float planes had intercepted U.S. dive bombers beginning their attack, he descended and shot down two of them.
As the four remaining Wildcats headed home, a dozen Zeros emerged from the sun's glare. Lt. DeBlanc shot down one and destroyed another; he watched it explode directly in front of his plane. Flying through the debris, he shot down yet another, his fifth of the day, seconds before bullets shattered his cockpit. He said in a 1998 interview that he had just glanced at his watch when his instrument panel exploded in his face and the watch flew off his wrist.
Lt. DeBlanc bailed out into shark-infested waters and then had to decide whether to swim to Plum Island or try to make it to the larger Kolombagara Island. Supported by his life jacket but with salt water burning shrapnel wounds in his back, arms and legs, he swam to the larger island eight miles away. It took him all night.
For three days, he subsisted on coconuts until a group of indigenous people found him and bartered him to another tribe for a sack of rice. "Most people live their entire lives without knowing exactly what they're worth. I know exactly what I'm worth -- a 10-pound sack of rice," he said in a History Channel documentary that aired this year.
The second tribe hid him, cared for his wounds and then took him by outrigger canoe to the home of an Anglican missionary. The missionary contacted Allied authorities, who arranged for a Navy patrol bomber to land just off the island; tribal members paddled Lt. DeBlanc to the plane in a canoe. He made it back to the hospital at Henderson Field three days before his 22nd birthday..."
Brokaw's correct.They *are* the Greatest Generation.
I saw Mr. Deblanc on the History Channel’s “Dog fights” program, what he did was simply amazing.
U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.) Col Jefferson Joseph DeBlanc, Sr.'s last words before his death Thursday were, "I give myself to you, Jesus."
He said it three times his daughter Barbara Romero said.
The 1946 Congressional Medal of Honor recipient will be buried following a noon mass Monday at St. Martin de Tours Roman Catholic Church in St. Martinville. He was 86... "He was home and had 24-hour care the last year, but he still had a full life," Romero said. "He had hobbies. He loved to tinker with electronics. He loved to ride his bike. He loved to cut grass. He loved the senior citizen Olympics, where he competed in the pole vault..."
"...I was very close to my father," she said. "I could always talk to him. He taught me to drive. He taught school. He was very friendly with his students. He would come into the classroom and say, 'I lost the test.' Then he would look around and find it in the trash can. Of course he placed it in the trash can. He had a great sense of humor."
“They swapped him for a bag of rice to people from another tribe. “
The History Channel did a show/interview on him this year. He’s quoted as saying “very few men know their exact worth. I know mine. One bag of rice.”
Tears, and Thanksgiving to our Lord for Col. Jefferson Joseph DeBlanc, Sr.
What a story! Can you imagine....?
RIP brave Marine!
Remarkable man. Remarkable life. Godspeed, Mr. DeBlanc. You done good.
If you have broadband check out the link at the bottom of post #2. It’s the segment from History Channel’s Dogfights featuring DeBlanc retelling his story, including the computer generated visualization of the air combat.
I like his description of blasting a Zero to pieces and seeing the engine tumbling end over end right past him. Another Zero had him dead to rights, he lived to tell about it while the other pilot met his maker.
Nuts.
1) The clamoring for "free" drugs and "free" everything else should disabuse us of that notion
and
2) If you don't think that the current crop of 18-30 year-olds we have serving in hostile territory now is every bit as good as the subset of American life who actually served in WWII, I urge you to reconsider.
RIP, COL Jefferson DeBlanc, Sr. And thank you for everything you did for our country.
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Gone to his reward, I do hope to meet him on the other side as part of mine.
May God bless you, Col. Jefferson Joseph DeBlanc, Sr.
A few weeks back, I’m driving in town. This guy has a Medal of Honor drivers license plate on his car. Never seen that before.... Then yesterday, see that very few, like only 150 people alive have that honor? I felt priveleged to see that guy in his p/u truck. It was in Tacoma WA, the man must have been about 70 ish? Wonder who that might have been?
Another hero to honor and remember. I appreciate my Dad and his WWII experiences that much more with each passing of a WWII vet.
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