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NAME Wilbur Howard Blakeslee |
NICKNAME Bill |
SERVICE NUMBER O-27122 |
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| UNIT VMF-214 Pilot |
HOME OF RECORD 17 Gridley Street Bristol, CT |
NEXT OF KIN Mother, Mrs. Frances Blakeslee |
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| DATE OF BIRTH December 24, 1917 at Hartford, CT |
ENTERED SERVICE September 27, 1938 (enlisted) May 21, 1943 (commissioned) |
DATE OF LOSS August 6, 1943 |
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| REGION Solomon Islands |
CAMPAIGN / AREA Magusaisai |
CASUALTY TYPE Missing In Action Declared Dead August 7, 1944 |
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| CIRCUMSTANCES OF LOSS Second Lieutenant Wilbur H. Blakeslee was a pilot assigned to VMF-214, a Marine fighter squadron. He was a veteran “Swashbuckler” who served a tour as an enlisted pilot before earning a field commission. On 6 August 1943, Blakeslee took up the “tail-end Charlie” spot on an escort mission to the Shortland Islands. The Corsair pilots flew in a protective cloud around an F5A photo-recon plane, just 100 feet above the water. After shooting up some moored floatplanes, the escort fighters found themselves in a dogfight with as many as thirty Japanese aircraft; still, they claimed an additional five victories. The cost of the mission was Lieutenant Blakeslee. He did not return from the Shortlands, and no Americans witnessed his demise. He was carried as missing in action for a year and a day, but ultimately declared dead on 7 August 1944. |
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| INDIVIDUAL DECORATIONS Purple Heart |
LAST KNOWN RANK Second Lieutenant posthumous First Lieutenant |
STATUS OF REMAINS Missing |
MEMORIALS Manila American Cemetery |
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Biography:
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