thedrifter
02-01-08, 05:09 AM
Posted on Fri, Feb. 01, 2008
Family donates father's Medal of Honor
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS -- Only weeks before he died, a retired fighter pilot who shot down five Japanese planes during the Battle of Guadalcanal and his family decided the National World War II Museum should have his Medal of Honor.
On Thursday, the 65th anniversary of that firefight, the museum formally unveiled the medal and related items donated by the family of Col. Jefferson DeBlanc, who was a lieutenant in the Marines and barely in his 20s on Jan. 31, 1943.
Until his death on Thanksgiving, he was the last surviving recipient of the medal from World War II in Louisiana, said Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller, president and CEO of the museum.
Barbara DeBlanc Romero told an audience of about 150 her father showed off and bragged about medals he won in the Senior Olympics, but kept the Medal of Honor in its box, bringing it out only if someone asked to see it.
In addition to the medal - the second donated to the museum - the family gave related items including the citation describing DeBlanc's actions, a photograph of President Truman shaking DeBlanc's hand, and a fishing spear from the island where he was taken captive.
It took U.S. forces six months to take Guadalcanal. DeBlanc, who wound up with nine confirmed kills of enemy aircraft, got five of them when he led six planes to provide air cover for a bombing raid against the the Japanese in the Solomon Islands on Jan. 31, 1943.
The islands were so far from the Navy base at Henderson Field that the fighter planes needed external fuel tanks to get there and back, museum historian Martin K.A. Morgan said. As DeBlanc headed out, he realized that his were leaking.
"Knowing he would not have enough fuel to return, he stayed with the bombers," Morgan said.
Once there, he shot down two Japanese float planes and a fighter. As the squadron headed back to Henderson, DeBlanc spotted two more Japanese planes coming up behind the bombers. All six American fighters were low on fuel. Henderson ordered the rest of the group back to base.
"Undaunted, he opened fire and blasted both Zeros from the sky in short, bitterly fought action which resulted in such hopeless damage to his plane that he was forced to bail out at a perilously low altitude atop the trees on enemy-held Kolombangara," the citation for his medal states.
Kolombarangara Island tribesmen captured him but traded him to a friendly tribe for a 10-pound sack of rice.
One grabbed DeBlanc's belt buckle from him. Since soldiers had been told never to show any fear of the natives, Romero said, "Dad grabbed his spear. It hung on our wall for years."
He was eventually picked up by a Navy float plane and reunited with his squadron.
He said in 1998 that he used a Japanese uniform stolen from a barge and traveled by night to reach a place where U.S. forces could be contacted and pick him up.
DeBlanc recovered from his wounds and went on to see action in several other campaigns in the war.
Ellie
Family donates father's Medal of Honor
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW ORLEANS -- Only weeks before he died, a retired fighter pilot who shot down five Japanese planes during the Battle of Guadalcanal and his family decided the National World War II Museum should have his Medal of Honor.
On Thursday, the 65th anniversary of that firefight, the museum formally unveiled the medal and related items donated by the family of Col. Jefferson DeBlanc, who was a lieutenant in the Marines and barely in his 20s on Jan. 31, 1943.
Until his death on Thanksgiving, he was the last surviving recipient of the medal from World War II in Louisiana, said Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller, president and CEO of the museum.
Barbara DeBlanc Romero told an audience of about 150 her father showed off and bragged about medals he won in the Senior Olympics, but kept the Medal of Honor in its box, bringing it out only if someone asked to see it.
In addition to the medal - the second donated to the museum - the family gave related items including the citation describing DeBlanc's actions, a photograph of President Truman shaking DeBlanc's hand, and a fishing spear from the island where he was taken captive.
It took U.S. forces six months to take Guadalcanal. DeBlanc, who wound up with nine confirmed kills of enemy aircraft, got five of them when he led six planes to provide air cover for a bombing raid against the the Japanese in the Solomon Islands on Jan. 31, 1943.
The islands were so far from the Navy base at Henderson Field that the fighter planes needed external fuel tanks to get there and back, museum historian Martin K.A. Morgan said. As DeBlanc headed out, he realized that his were leaking.
"Knowing he would not have enough fuel to return, he stayed with the bombers," Morgan said.
Once there, he shot down two Japanese float planes and a fighter. As the squadron headed back to Henderson, DeBlanc spotted two more Japanese planes coming up behind the bombers. All six American fighters were low on fuel. Henderson ordered the rest of the group back to base.
"Undaunted, he opened fire and blasted both Zeros from the sky in short, bitterly fought action which resulted in such hopeless damage to his plane that he was forced to bail out at a perilously low altitude atop the trees on enemy-held Kolombangara," the citation for his medal states.
Kolombarangara Island tribesmen captured him but traded him to a friendly tribe for a 10-pound sack of rice.
One grabbed DeBlanc's belt buckle from him. Since soldiers had been told never to show any fear of the natives, Romero said, "Dad grabbed his spear. It hung on our wall for years."
He was eventually picked up by a Navy float plane and reunited with his squadron.
He said in 1998 that he used a Japanese uniform stolen from a barge and traveled by night to reach a place where U.S. forces could be contacted and pick him up.
DeBlanc recovered from his wounds and went on to see action in several other campaigns in the war.
Ellie