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GySgt David R. Marcussen
to remember
Marine Col Jefferson J Deblanc.
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Contact Info
Last Address Lockport
Date of Passing Dec 06, 2007
Official Badges
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Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
After service with VMF-112, served with VMF-422 in Central Pacific and Okinawa campaigns. Following active duty served in the Marine Corps Reserves (1946-1972) attaining the grade of Colonel. Served as CO for MARTG-18 at NAS New Orleans. Principle post-war career involved education, serving as a secondary school physics, electronics and math teacher. Instructed in the Department of Defense (DoD) International Schools system in Brunsum, Holland (1974-1979). Continues education activity with Saint Martinville, LA school system. Military service awards include: Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Air Medal, and the Purple Heart. Active in community affairs with many organizations.
Other Comments:
NY Times December 6, 2007 Jefferson DeBlanc, Hero Pilot, Dies at 86 By RICHARD GOLDSTEIN Jefferson J. DeBlanc, a World War II fighter pilot who was awarded the Medal of Honor for shooting down five Japanese planes on a single day while running out of fuel, died Nov. 22 in Lafayette, La. He was 86 and lived St. Martinville, La..
The cause was complications of pneumonia, said his daughter, Barbara DeBlanc Romero.
On Jan. 31, 1943, Mr. DeBlanc, then a lieutenant in the Marines, took off from Guadalcanal in his Wildcat fighter, leading a six-plane section of Marine Fighting Squadron 112. They were assigned to protect dive bombers and torpedo planes attacking Japanese ships off the island of Kolombangara, in the Solomons chain.
Mr. DeBlanc became embroiled in a furious air battle as Japanese planes pounced on the American aircraft. His fighter was using fuel at an unexpectedly rapid rate and he could have returned to his base, but he pressed his attacks.
"We needed all the guns we could get up there to escort those dive bombers," he told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans in a 1999 interview. "I figured if I run out of gas, I run out of gas. I figured I could survive a bailout. You've got to live with your conscience. And my conscience told me to go ahead."
In the span of a few minutes, he shot down five Japanese planes, but soon afterward his fighter was hit by enemy aircraft fire that knocked his watch from his wrist, peppered him with shrapnel and set his plane afire.
He parachuted into the ocean, then swam for some six hours, making it ashore at Japanese-occupied Kolombangara. He hoped to steal a Japanese Zero fighter and fly it to Guadalcanal, but after resting for several days in an abandoned hut, he was seized by a group of tribesmen who poked at his sunburned skin, fascinated at how it turned white when prodded by their sticks.
"I could see myself in the pot," he recalled long afterward.
He was placed in a bamboo cage and heard the beating of drums, seemingly the transmission of messages to tribal elders seeking word on how to deal with him.
The next day, deliverance arrived. Another tribesman was carrying a gift for his captors.
"This guy came in and threw down a 10-pound sack of rice, which he stole from the Japanese," Mr. DeBlanc remembered in a 2000 interview with The Advocate in Baton Rouge, La. "He threw it down at their feet, and they picked it up and let me go. From then on, I felt safe."
His rescuer was affiliated with the coast watchers, mainly Australians and Pacific islanders who spied on Japanese plane and ship movements in the Solomons and helped rescue downed Allied pilots. Mr. DeBlanc was taken to a nearby island by islanders who were sympathetic to the Americans, and a United States Navy patrol plane picked him up.
Mr. DeBlanc, who had shot down three Japanese bombers off Guadalcanal the previous fall, later downed another Japanese plane off Okinawa, giving him nine "kills" in the war.
President Harry S. Truman presented him with the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for valor, on Dec. 6, 1946. Recounting Mr. DeBlanc's exploits off Kolombangara, the citation said that he had "remained on the scene despite a rapidly diminishing fuel supply" and had waged "a valiant battle against terrific odds."
Mr. DeBlanc, a native of Lockport, La., left active military service after the war, received a doctorate in education from McNeese State University and taught mathematics and science in St. Martinville. He retired from the Marines in 1972 as a colonel in the Reserves.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by his sons, Jefferson Jr., of Church Point, La.; Richard, of Coteau Holmes, La.; Frank, of St. Martinville; and Michael, of Parks, La.; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. His wife, Louise, died in 2005.
Examining diaries left behind by coast watchers, Mr. DeBlanc eventually learned the identity of the man who had saved him. He returned to the Solomons in May 2000 to thank the rescuer, Atitao Lodukolo. Mr. Lodukolo was a frail 95 years old by then, getting around with the aid of a walking stick.
Mr. DeBlanc and Mr. Lodukolo posed together for a video camera, and then they exchanged salutes in a final farewell.
"How about that?" Mr. DeBlanc remarked later. "That's full circle."
Ryukyus Campaign (1945)/Battle for Okinawa
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Description The Battle of Okinawa, codenamed Operation Iceberg. was fought on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa and was the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific War of World War II. The 82-day-long battle lasted from early April until mid-June 1945. After a long campaign of island hopping, the Allies were approaching Japan, and planned to use Okinawa, a large island only 340 mi (550 km) away from mainland Japan, as a base for air operations on the planned invasion of Japanese mainland (coded Operation Downfall). Four divisions of the U.S. 10th Army (the 7th, 27th, 77th, and 96th) and two Marine Divisions (the 1st and 6th) fought on the island. Their invasion was supported by naval, amphibious, and tactical air forces.
The battle has been referred to as the "typhoon of steel" in English, and tetsu no ame ("rain of steel") or ("violent wind of steel") in Japanese. The nicknames refer to the ferocity of the fighting, the intensity of kamikaze attacks from the Japanese defenders, and to the sheer numbers of Allied ships and armored vehicles that assaulted the island. The battle resulted in the highest number of casualties in the Pacific Theater during World War II. Based on Okinawan government sources, mainland Japan lost 77,166 soldiers, who were either killed or committed suicide, and the Allies suffered 14,009 deaths (with an estimated total of more than 65,000 casualties of all kinds). Simultaneously, 42,000–150,000 local civilians were killed or committed suicide, a significant proportion of the local population. The atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki together with the Soviet invasion of Manchuria caused Japan to surrender less than two months after the end of the fighting on Okinawa.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
March / 1945
To Month/Year
June / 1945
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
Memories In November 1944, Capt DeBlanc embarked upon his second tour of overseas service. He joined Marine Fighting Squadron 422 in the Marshall Islands and remained in that area until May 1945, when he flew northward to participate in the Okinawa campaign with Marine Fighting Squadron 212. He continued operating in the Ryukyus until the end of the war, bagging one more Japanese plane to raise his total to nine. He returned to the United States again in October and was detached to Naval Air Station in Seattle, Washington.
