John Thomas Blackburn

John Thomas Blackburn was born in Annapolis, Maryland, to Captain Paul P. Blackburn, Sr. and Nell Carey, of Omaha, Nebraska, who raised him in Washington, D.C., where he graduated from Western High School. He had an older brother, Vice Admiral Paul P. "Brick" Blackburn, Jr. and a younger sister, Elinor Carey Blackburn. John Thomas Blackburn's father and brother also played significant roles in WW II and the Vietnam War. (See Family and Later Years below.) ==Navy career==

Blackburn graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1933, where he played water polo. He trained as a Naval Aviator and became a flight instructor in 1941 when the United States entered World War II. Lieutenant Commander Blackburn was anxious to get into combat, but was relegated to flying the Brewster F2A Buffalo at Opa Locka Naval Air Station, near Miami. First command, VGF-29 After several requests for a combat assignment, he received orders in July 1942 to organize VGF-29 as commanding officer and report aboard the new escort carrier . VGF-29 was equipped with the Grumman F4F-4 Wildcat. Blackburn assembled a ready room of mainly brand new ensigns fresh from winning their wings at advanced flying school at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. Luckily he had the assistance of a combat veteran from the recent Battle of the Coral Sea, Lt.(jg) Harry "Brink" Bass who received the Navy Cross for his attack on the . Blackburn set up operations at a remote field at Pungo, Virginia, well away from the brass and traffic at NAS Norfolk and was soon promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Pungo suited Blackburn fine as he wanted an undisturbed environment to get the squadron acquainted with the Wildcat and ready for deployment and the combat likely to follow. The squadron embarked aboard USS Santee in October 1942 to participate in Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of North Africa. Arriving in the waters off Morocco on November 6, VGF-29 flew first combat mission on 8 November but could not find their target, and poor weather and damaged homing equipment aboard Santee forced them to ditch or force-land their Wildcats. Blackburn floated adrift in a life raft for three days before he was spotted by a destroyer and rescued. Thus ended VGF-29's inauspicious debut and Blackburn's first combat deployment. Shortly thereafter, Blackburn was ordered to stand up a new squadron. The squadron deployed aboard and worked hard to adapt the F4U Corsair to the carrier environment, which necessitated some design changes, resulting in the F4U-1A model. The Jolly Rogers deployed to the Pacific, but upon arrival there the Navy decided to initially land base its Corsairs. The squadron flew to Guadalcanal on October 26 where it received orders to begin operating out of Ondongo (which means "Place of Death") on the island of New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. They arrived on the 27th, just in time to participate in providing air cover for the Landings at Cape Torokina, near Empress Augusta Bay on Bougainville Island on 1 November; this drew attention from the considerable Japanese presence at their bastion of Rabaul. Blackburn and his Jolly Rogers were assigned the high cover mission for the landings and ran into a wave of Japanese Aichi D3A "Val" dive bombers escorted by Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighters. Blackburn downed two and the squadron three more in their combat debut. On November 8, 1943, The Jolly Rogers faced their biggest test to date when six Jolly Rogers faced an attack of 15 Japanese D3A "Val" dive bombers escorted by 24 A6M "Zeros". Hedrick launched with a flight of eight Corsairs, but two aborted. In the engagement, VF-17 downed three fighters and damaged four others with no losses. In its two tours of duty in the Solomon Islands, VF-17 had 152 aerial victories and produced 11 aces. Blackburn ranked third with 11 victories behind Hedrick with 12 and Ira Kepford who led the squadron with 17. VF-17 finished its last combat tour in the Solomons on May 10, 1944, and many pilots were reassigned. A series of interviews with former pilots and ground crew of VF-17, including Tommy Blackburn and fighter ace Ike Kepford, was held and videotaped at the Glenview Naval Air Station in Glenview, Il in 1984. That recording is still available on DVD from RDR Productions in Glenview, IL. Aerial victories USS Midway In 1945, Blackburn became CAG (Commander, Air Group) of Carrier Air Group 74 (CVBG-74) aboard the newly commissioned aircraft carrier , shortly before V-J Day. While commanding HATWING-1, Captain Blackburn participated in a demonstration of carrier mobility. On 3 September 1956, he and his wingman each flew a Douglas A3D Skywarrior from the , off the coast of Oregon, across a finish line at the National Air Show in Oklahoma City, and on to Jacksonville, Florida, without refueling. == Retirement ==

John Thomas "Tommy" Blackburn retired from the Navy in 1962 and began to use the name Tom Blackburn. In mid-1962, Blackburn bought land on the Silverado Trail in St. Helena, California. There, he created Casa Nuestra Vineyard and began growing wine grapes, which he sold to the Charles Krug Winery, which was owned and operated by Robert Mondavi, for whom Blackburn wrote about the process of making wine. At the vineyard, Tom Blackburn raised "blue ribbon" Golden Retrievers. In 1975, Blackburn sold his St. Helena, California, vineyard and home to Gene and Cody Kirkham, who transformed the property into Casa Nuestra Winery, which produces excellent wine, including a Reisling from grapes Blackburn planted in the 1970's. == Family and Later Years ==

With his first wife, Rosalie Sanderlin Reed, a Smith College graduate from Washington, DC, Tom Blackburn had two children, Mark Weld Blackburn in 1937 and Patricia "Pattie" Anne Blackburn in 1940. After graduating from Yale University, Mark Blackburn married Jennifer. The couple had two children, Nicholas and Lissa. Pattie Blackburn graduated from Smith College and married John William Soggs of Utica, New York. Pattie gave birth to Leslie Reed Soggs (1963), to Randolph Blackburn Soggs (1966) and to Sarah Ruth Soggs (1969). Blackburn has ten great-grandchildren: through his son, Mark: Alexander and Amy; and through his daughter, Pattie: by granddaughter Leslie Reed (née Soggs): Charlotte Rosalie Reed (1996) and Morgain Elizabeth Ann Reed (1998); by grandson Randolph Blackburn Soggs: Katherine Soggs (1999), Jillian Soggs (2000), and Jackson Soggs (2005); and by granddaughter Sarah Soggs: Benjamin Soggs Wolf (1998), Finneus Beager Wolf (2000), and Abigail Soggs Wolf (2002). When he sold the vineyard in 1975, Tom Blackburn moved to Jacksonville, Florida. There he became reacquainted with and married Jamie Brashears, widow of Admiral Brashears, a WW II friend. Jamie supported him in writing his WW II memoir, The Jolly Rogers: The Story of Tom Blackburn and Navy Fighting Squadron VF-17 published by Penguin in 1990. Based on this memoir, a documentary film called Fighting 17: The Jolly Rodgers was made including in depth interviews with Tom Blackburn and his squadron members, the documentary became available in 2026 through The American Hero Film Series. John Thomas Blackburn died in Jacksonville, Florida in March 1994. His obituary appeared in the New York Times, and he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. == Recognition, Awards and Decorations ==

A replica of Blackburn's F4U Corsair (photo above), with the Jolly Roger insignia and "Big Hog" written on the vertical stabilizer and the number one on the fuselage, was installed at the Washington Navy Yard in 1985. In New Hartford, New York, the town where Blackburn's daughter Pattie raised her children, his son-in-law built a street called "Blackburn Court" in honor of Tom Blackburn. Naval Awards + Decorations Captain John Thomas Blackburn's Naval awards and decorations include: Navy Cross citation :Lieutenant Commander John Thomas Blackburn :U.S. Navy The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Commander John Thomas Blackburn, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Fighter Plane in Fighting Squadron Seventeen (VF-17), attached to the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-12), while participating in aerial flights against the enemy in the New Britain theater. In thirty-two days Lieutenant Commander Blackburn flew thirty combat sorties, twenty-one of which were escort missions or fighter sweeps over the Rabaul area, and on thirteen of which he encountered enemy aircraft. On 26 January, when the bombers which he was escorting were intercepted by more than fifty enemy fighters, he destroyed one of them. On 30 January the light bombers he escorted were aggressively intercepted by twenty enemy fighters. In repeated attacks he destroyed two of them and probably shot down three more. On 9 February he led a flight of eight Corsairs which found an enemy ship at anchor and sank it with machine gun fire. His outstanding devotion to duty, his heroic conduct against numerically superior enemy forces, his daring and aggressive airmanship were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. ==References==