WWII Marine pilot was awarded Medal of Honor

Col. Jefferson DeBlanc Sr., who was awarded the Medal of Honor after a fierce World War II battle in which the Marine Corps pilot shot down five enemy aircraft, parachuted from his damaged plane, then swam to an island where tribesmen traded him for a five-pound sack of rice, has died. He was 86.

DeBlanc, who later became a beloved high school math and physics teacher, died Thursday at Lafayette General Medical Center in Lafayette, La., of complications from pneumonia, said his son Frank of St. Martinville, La.

The incident that earned Jefferson the nation’s highest military honor took place Jan. 31, 1943, during operations against Japanese forces off Kolombangara Island in the Solomon Islands.

A Japanese fleet was spotted headed toward Guadalcanal. U.S. dive bombers were sent to attack the fleet, with fighter aircraft deployed to protect the bombers. In a one-man Grumman Wildcat fighter, DeBlanc led a section of six planes in Marine Fighting Squadron 112, according to the citation that accompanied his Medal of Honor.

At the rendezvous point, DeBlanc discovered that his plane, which was dubbed “The Impatient Virgin,” was running out of fuel. If DeBlanc battled the Japanese Zero fighter planes, he would not have enough fuel to return to base. Two of his comrades, whose planes malfunctioned, turned back, according to a 1999 article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

“We needed all the guns we could get up there to escort those bombers,” DeBlanc said in the Times-Picayune article. “I figured if I run out of gas, I run out of gas. I figured I could survive a bailout. I had confidence in my will to survive. You’ve got to live with your conscience. And my conscience told me to go ahead.”

DeBlanc and the other pilots waged fierce combat until, “picking up a call for assistance from the dive bombers, under attack by enemy float planes at 1,000 feet, he broke off his engagement with the Zeros, plunged into the formation of float planes and disrupted the savage attack, enabling our dive bombers and torpedo planes to complete their runs on the Japanese surface disposition and withdraw without further incident,” the citation says.

Ultimately, DeBlanc shot down two float planes and three of the fighters. But a bullet ripped through DeBlanc’s plane and hit his instrument panel, causing it to erupt into flames. DeBlanc “was forced to bail out at a perilously low altitude,” according to the citation.

“The guy who shot me down, he saw me bail out,” DeBlanc said in a 2001 article in the State-Times/Morning Advocate of Baton Rouge, La.. “He knew I was alive. I knew they (the Japanese) were looking for me. But I’m not a pessimist. I knew I could survive. I was raised in the swamps.”

DeBlanc was born Feb. 15, 1921, in Lockport, La., the son of Frank F. and Noelie Barras DeBlanc. In 1940, he signed up for the Civilian Pilot Training Program at Southwestern Louisiana Institute, now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He left the program and joined the Marine flight program. He received training at the Navy Reserve aviation base in New Orleans and Corpus Christi, Texas. DeBlanc was appointed an aviation cadet in the Navy Reserve, then commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve in 1942.

After his plane was shot down in 1943, DeBlanc swam to an island and slept in a hut until he was discovered by islanders and placed in a bamboo cage. The man who gave a sack of rice for him was Ati, an islander whom DeBlanc later called a guardian angel, responsible for orchestrating his rescue by a U.S. Navy boat.

DeBlanc served a second tour of overseas service in Marine Fighting Squadron 22 in the Marshall Islands. By the end of his service, he had shot down nine enemy planes.

On Dec. 6, 1946, President Truman awarded DeBlanc the Medal of Honor. His other honors include the Distinguished Flying Cross, several awards of the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. In 1972, after serving six years as commander at Belle Chasse Naval Air Station, DeBlanc retired from the Marine Corps Reserve.

At home, DeBlanc earned two masters’ degrees in education from Louisiana State University in 1951 and 1963, and a doctorate in education from McNeese State University in 1973. For years, he taught in St. Martin parish and supervised teachers. On a funeral home website, mourners remembered DeBlanc as much for his teaching as for his wartime exploits.

“A true teacher, he showed you how to ‘think,’ rather than memorize answers for a test,” wrote former student Raymond J. Goodrich, Class of 1964.

DeBlanc, who was also active in the church and in the Senior Olympics, sometimes spoke about his experiences, always remembering the many who died in the battle.

Recently, he was featured in a History Channel series, “Dogfights.”

“He was one of the few people who [influenced] my decision to enlist,” Sgt. Joshua Blanchard wrote on the website. “I still use skills he taught in those few lectures every day at work. I still stand in awe at his life and strive if only to be half the soldier he was.”

In addition to his son Frank, DeBlanc is survived by four other children: a daughter, Barbara DeBlanc Romero of St. Martinville; three sons, the Very Rev. Jefferson DeBlanc Jr. of Church Point, La., Richard DeBlanc of Coteau Holmes, La., and Michael DeBlanc of Parks, La.; and several grandchildren.

Memorial donations may be made to Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Box 305, Maryknoll, NY, 10545-3613 or Lacombe Carmel, Box 476, Lacombe, LA 70445-0476.

--

jocelyn.stewart@latimes.com