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By Jon Tatting
jon.tatting@ecm-inc.com
And the story continues for veteran Lewis “Blake” Blakeney, 87, of the Weber area, who was featured last week in honor of Veterans Day.
A World War II fighter pilot, Blake recalled the day he was shot down and taken prisoner by the German Army during the Battle of the Bulge. Find last week's story by clicking here.
This story is mainly a sequel to his European tour, with recollections of his training and first tour in the Pacific where he flew over 100 missions during WWII. Tours in Korea and Vietnam followed.
Born in Memphis, Tenn., on December 12, 1921, Blake grew up a volunteer and schooled there before moving around with his family during the Depression era.
Pictured: Blake in full U.S. Air Force gear during the Korean War. His collection of medals shows the impact he had in serving his country.
In 1934-35, his father got a job in Deephaven, Minn., in the Lake Minnetonka area. He graduated from Central High, which no longer exists, in Minneapolis.
He then enrolled at Minneapolis Tech where he—still a civilian—took a course in aircraft mechanics in preparation for flying airplanes, his desired job. However, it was worth nothing; the course was not FAA approved, remembered Blake, hinting at some frustration at the time.
At 20 years old, Blake enlisted on December 8, 1941 in Minneapolis. “I needed a job and being a kid born in Tennessee, I was a volunteer. I’ve been a volunteer my whole life.”
(Why is Tennessee known as the Volunteer State? During the Civil War, so many volunteered to fight the Union. “I’m a Rebel with or without a cause,” Blake said with a chuckle. “I love to help people out.”
Upon enlisting, he was put on hold for 30-40 days. Then, off to Santa Anna, Calif., for preflight basic training. “I knew I wanted to be a fighter pilot right away. The U.S. Army Air Corp (which became the U.S. Air Force in 1949) taught you your left from your right foot.”
Next, Blake went to Oxnard, Calif., for primary flight training before basic flying training at Gardner Field in Taft., Calif. He eventually graduated on January 4, 1943. “They made me a second lieutenant and gave me the silver wings. They told me, ‘You’re a pilot.’
“I felt wonderful and free,” he said, noting he no longer needed an instructor at his side.
Prior to graduation, he achieved his required 60 hours in a PT-13, used for primary training. Looking like a plane from World War I, “it was the first plane I flew,” he said.
Pictured: Blake piloting a U.S. fighter plane over Vietnam during a tour in the Vietnam War.
Blake was 22 years old upon receiving orders for his first tour of duty. In 1943, he was sent to St. Petersburg, Fla., where he was transitioned to the P-40 Curtiss Warhawk—the first plane he flew in World War II.
“That was a thrill,” he said of the aircraft, the primary fighter plane used during the war.
After fulfilling the necessary hours flying and adjusting to the craft, he was transported by boat out to the Pacific, landing first in Hawaii.
Tour 1: the Pacific
American airmen introduced Blake and his squadron to the unique yet effective tactics used by Gen. Claire Lee Chennault and the “Flying Tigers,” an American volunteer group in association with the Chinese Air Force, hired to sustain a free China by fighting against Japan.
Blake and fellow P-40 American pilots learned Gen. Chennault and the Flying Tigers’ approach to combatting the Japanese by air, through custom tactics in combat maneuvering that proved effective against Japanese war planes.
“We wanted China to be free,” said Blake, noting the U.S. furnished planes, materials and other equipment in the effort.
“It was his (Gen. Chennault) tactics we were learning before going into combat with the Japanese,” explained Blake, adding the Chinese relied on the U.S. for mutual aid.
On June 14-15 of 1943, Blake and his squadron flew from their home base of Efate Island to Espiritu Santo. On June 16, they flew up to Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
Blake and crew eventually took off to meet 106 Japanese coming down on what turned out to be Japan’s last daylight raid on Guadalcanal.
“We (including the Army, Navy and Marines) shot down all but six them,” recalled Blake. “That’s why that was the last daylight raid on Guadalcanal. It sent a message. We made our stand at Guadalcanal.”
Blake noted New Caledonia was one of his squadron’s first stops in the Pacific. They had traveled as far up to Rabaul Island in the Solomon Islands.
Blake emphasized he flew with Lt. Col. Robert Westbrook, his squadron commander in the Pacific. “He had 18 kills,” he remembered.
After completing his required number of missions in the Pacific, 23-year-old Blake came back to America and wed Donna Maxwell, of North Minneapolis, in June 1944. They had “hit it off” from a blind date before his deployment, and they enjoyed 61 years of marriage.
Shortly after the wedding bells, Blake became an instructor for a few months transitioning young pilots from trainer planes to flying the P-38.
Off to Korea, Vietnam
After his second tour serving in the European Theatre near the war’s end in 1945, Blake continued his career with the U.S. Air Force.
Climbing the ranks from second lieutenant in the Pacific, to first lieutenant, captain and then major, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel after two more combat tours in Korea and Vietnam.
He had flown over 100 missions in the Pacific and around 10 in Europe.
“I spent half of my life in the South Pacific,” said Blake, also stationed in locations such as Taiwan and Okinawa over the years.
In his third tour to Korea, around 1952-53, he flew at most 10 missions from an F-86 Saber jet from the American home base in Seoul, South Korea.
A highlight, he noted, was shooting down a Russian-made Mig-15. “It was likely piloted by a North Korean or Chinese, or it could have been Russian,” said Blake, remembering the history of those nations with the United States at the time.
The U.S Air Force had squads of F-86’s and F-84’s adding up to some 75 planes in Korea where orders called for air superiority. In other words, plane versus plane and “all enemies down,” Blake said.
“We were trying to control all air space; we escorted bombers,” he recalled.
In 1965, a fourth tour to Vietnam began with Lt. Col. Blakeney flying his F-100 jet from Louisiana to Hawaii in eight hours. During that span, he fueled up five times by air.
Another eight hours landed him in Guam, before the Philippines and eventually Vietnam where Phanrang served as his air base. The tour lasted a year, with many short flights and all air to ground missions, Blake recalled.
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