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Speaker 1: Jefferson de Blanc was falling through the air. The wind
Speaker 1: roared in his ears, his shoulders were gripped by the
Speaker 1: hardness of his parachute. He was plummeting thousands of feet
Speaker 1: towards the Pacific Ocean, having jumped seconds before from the
Speaker 1: wreckage of his plane. He was hoping to land somewhere
Speaker 1: close to a shoreline, because as he was falling, night
Speaker 1: was falling too. It was the evening of January thirty first,
Speaker 1: nineteen forty three. Jeff was a Marine Corps fighter pilot,
Speaker 1: and for the past hour he had been battling Japanese
Speaker 1: warplanes and the skies over the Solomon Islands, weaving in
Speaker 1: and out of enemy fighters, dodging bullets firing in return,
Speaker 1: and watching his good friend, his wingman, get blown out
Speaker 1: of the air. Jeff himself had shot down several enemy planes.
Speaker 1: He had looked directly in the eyes of one of
Speaker 1: the men he had killed right before the man's plane exploded,
Speaker 1: and then Jeff's own plane had been shot to bits,
Speaker 1: the engine caught fire, and the plane fell apart around him.
Speaker 1: Not in minutes but in seconds. As Jeff scrambled onto
Speaker 1: the wing and pulled the ripcord of his parachute, he
Speaker 1: knew that falling through the sky was the best of
Speaker 1: a bunch of bad outcomes, because there was no chance
Speaker 1: he survived in his plane, but there was a chance
Speaker 1: he could survive the fall, a slim one. Maybe the
Speaker 1: water was filled with sharks, and even if he managed
Speaker 1: to get to land, the islands below him were occupied
Speaker 1: by the Japanese military. He had seen their bases from
Speaker 1: the sky. If he survived the swim, and that was
Speaker 1: a big if, he would be stranded deep in enemy territory.
Speaker 1: But his current predicament was the direct result of two
Speaker 1: very specific decisions. He had made, one at the start
Speaker 1: of the battle and one at the end, but both
Speaker 1: were the same. To stay and fight say, even if
Speaker 1: it meant that this was the endgame. Plunging through the
Speaker 1: atmosphere towards the water as the sun disappeared over the horizon,
Speaker 1: Jeff de Blanc was twenty one years old, and somehow
Speaker 1: he was incredibly calm, convinced that he wasn't going to die,
Speaker 1: but how he would survive would be another story entirely.
Speaker 1: I'm j R. Martinez and this is Medal of Honor
Speaker 1: Stories of courage. The Medal of Honor is the highest
Speaker 1: military decoration in the United States, awarded for gallantry and
Speaker 1: bravery and combat at the risk of life, above and
Speaker 1: beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must be approved
Speaker 1: all the way up the chain of command, from the
Speaker 1: supervisory officer in the field to the White House. This
Speaker 1: show is about those heroes, what they did, what it meant,
Speaker 1: and what their stories tell us about the nature of
Speaker 1: courage and sacrifice. Jeff de Blanc's story is about long odds,
Speaker 1: some of the longest I have ever heard, but that's
Speaker 1: not the reason I love it. Jeff's story is incredible
Speaker 1: because it gets to something that's at the very heart
Speaker 1: of the Medal of Honor, a key to answering the question, why,
Speaker 1: in the name of protecting others do some people knowingly
Speaker 1: do things that might kill them. To Jeff the answer
Speaker 1: was clear. It was because he felt accountable. Not to
Speaker 1: his country, or his comrades or a higher power. He
Speaker 1: was accountable to himself. Jefferson de Blanc was born in
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty one. From a very early age, he was
Speaker 1: obsessed with aviation. Here he is talking about the moment
Speaker 1: he fell in love with it. When he was about
Speaker 1: six or seven.
Speaker 2: An aeroplane came over a biplane and had engine trouble
Speaker 2: and landed in the pasture about a mile from all home.
Speaker 2: So we all ran to see the aircraft.
Speaker 1: That accent you hear in his voice, it's kajun. Jeff
Speaker 1: was born in Louisiana, and he was descended from the
Speaker 1: French speaking settlers of that region. He grew up in
Speaker 1: the Bayous, specifically the Achafalaya basin the nation's largest river swamp,
Speaker 1: bigger than the Everglades. He spent his youth scrambling around
Speaker 1: in the murky heat of those dense, junglely swamps. Not
Speaker 1: a place where planes usually just fall out of the sky,
Speaker 1: but to a kid on that bayou. This was a
Speaker 1: dream come true.
Speaker 2: And of course I was the first one to get there.
Speaker 2: And when I got there for a reward, he picked
Speaker 2: me up and put me in a cockpit and I
Speaker 2: looked at the dials. I was caught and hooked dot
Speaker 2: in my mind. The instrumentation was fascinating and that's how
Speaker 2: I got hooked on aviation.
Speaker 1: From then on out, you will come to know something
Speaker 1: special about Jeff. Once he sets his mind to something,
Speaker 1: decides to do something, that's it. It just sticks. From
Speaker 1: a one time encounter with the plane as a kid,
Speaker 1: he picked a life path and stuck to it. He
Speaker 1: went to college in nineteen thirty eight, and by thirty nine,
Speaker 1: with war escalating in Europe, the government started training civilians
Speaker 1: to fly. Jeff signed up for flight school as quickly
Speaker 1: as he possibly could. In July of forty one, at
Speaker 1: the age of nineteen, he joined the Navy with the
Speaker 1: plan of becoming a fighter pilot. The attack on Pearl
Speaker 1: Harbor put pilot training on hyper speed. With the declaration
Speaker 1: of war, the military had to turn out aviators in
Speaker 1: record time, which meant that Jeff barely got two hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty hours of flight training before he was shipped out.
Speaker 1: No lessons in dog fighting tactics, almost no instruction on
Speaker 1: how to fire guns.
Speaker 2: And we did not have any schalvival training. The name
Speaker 2: of the game was get the bodies odd fast, and
Speaker 2: that's what they did.
Speaker 1: Jeff graduated from flight school, but then he was told
Speaker 1: the one thing that no fighter pilot wants to hear.
Speaker 1: The Navy needs you to fly reconnaissance aircraft.
Speaker 2: They were going to make a peboard pilot out of me,
Speaker 2: and I didn't want it. I wanted fighters.
Speaker 1: So Jeff transferred to the Marines. There he could be
Speaker 1: a fighter pilot. In the summer of nineteen forty two,
Speaker 1: he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve.
Speaker 1: His airplan would be the F four F Wildcat, rugged
Speaker 1: and easy to maneuver, with six machine guns mounted on
Speaker 1: the wings. It had a flying range of several hundred miles,
Speaker 1: but any dog fighting would burn fuel quickly. You could
Speaker 1: strap on an extra fifty gallon fuel tank, but that
Speaker 1: tended to have problems, including making the plane more difficult
Speaker 1: to fly and easier to blow up. Jeff couldn't wait
Speaker 1: to start flying Wildcats, but he hadn't trained in them
Speaker 1: at all. Before he fought in one for the first time,
Speaker 1: he had only flown a wildcat for nine hours, almost nothing.
Speaker 1: He would have to turn that nothing into something pretty
Speaker 1: fast because he was shipping out to the Solomon Islands,
Speaker 1: specifically Guadalcanal. We've talked about Guadalcanal before on this show.
Speaker 1: Last season we told the story of Doug mon Roe,
Speaker 1: the Coastguard signal men who died during one of the
Speaker 1: early battles there. In the months after Pearl Harbor, the
Speaker 1: Japanese Empire had gained footholds throughout the Pacific, the Philippines,
Speaker 1: Eastern China, Singapore, New Guinea, and Moore. Their goal was
Speaker 1: to move eastward to threaten Hawaii, and southward to cut
Speaker 1: off Australia from the rest of the Allied forces. The
Speaker 1: Allies were going to have to stop them if there
Speaker 1: was any hope of winning the war, so the Allies
Speaker 1: set their sights on the Solomons, a chain of more
Speaker 1: than nine hundred islands scattered over eleven thousand square miles
Speaker 1: in the South Pacific. In nineteen forty two, they invaded Guadalcanal,
Speaker 1: the biggest of the islands, where the Japanese had carved
Speaker 1: out an airfield. The Allies captured the airfield dug In
Speaker 1: and used it as a staging ground to take on
Speaker 1: the enemy.
Speaker 3: This is the airfield on the island of guadal Canal
Speaker 3: in the Solomons, for the possession of which so much
Speaker 3: heavy fighting has taken place in American hands. It's become
Speaker 3: a vitally important base from which to bum Japanese warships
Speaker 3: and convoys.
Speaker 1: Fighter pilots and Wildcats would escort dive bombers as they
Speaker 1: went to strife the Japanese. The Wildcats would take on
Speaker 1: these Japanese floatplanes and fighter jets so that the bombers
Speaker 1: could get close to their targets. You could have sent
Speaker 1: out bombers without the Wildcats. They needed that protection if
Speaker 1: they were going to get to their targets and get
Speaker 1: home safely. These aerial missions were inherently dangerous, and estimated
Speaker 1: four hundred and twenty American pilots would eventually lose their
Speaker 1: lives in the skies over the Solomons, and so in
Speaker 1: November of forty two, three months after the start of
Speaker 1: this campaign, Jeff arrived in Guadalcanal. The terrain of the
Speaker 1: Solomon Islands reminded him of Louisiana, the relentless heat, the mosquitoes.
Speaker 1: None of that was new to him. He was, as ever,
Speaker 1: completely calm, full of hope, and a kind of giddy,
Speaker 1: youthful faith. He told himself, I could survive here if
Speaker 1: I had to. Soon enough, he would put that theory
Speaker 1: to the test. The months passed and the Battle of
Speaker 1: Guadalcanal ground on. The US troops still only held the airfield,
Speaker 1: while the Japanese were elsewhere on the island and on
Speaker 1: bases scattered throughout the Solomons. Both sides had lost thousands
Speaker 1: of men, and yet as the years slowly turned to
Speaker 1: nineteen forty three, it seemed that neither would budge. On
Speaker 1: the afternoon of January thirty first, Jeff was given a mission.
Speaker 2: Boyd came down from fire to command that a Japanese
Speaker 2: invasion fleet was coming down with ships to probably reinforce
Speaker 2: Guadacanal for the final fight. So they scrambled US eight
Speaker 2: fire to Polish to go up after Escort twelve Dove
Speaker 2: bombers to hit a Japanese destroyers and ships that were
Speaker 2: in the Columbangala area, and Velo Novello two hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty miles outs beyond the range of the Wildcat, so
Speaker 2: we had to strap on a wing tank of fifty
Speaker 2: gallons to make it.
Speaker 1: That fifty gallon tank of fuel was going to be
Speaker 1: the difference between the fighter pilots making it all the
Speaker 1: way out to the fight and back to the base
Speaker 1: or potentially having to bel out of their aircraft somewhere
Speaker 1: over the ocean fuel tanks on empty. But it was
Speaker 1: also a liability. Jeff, as usual, was unfazed. He strapped
Speaker 1: on a watch he had just bought on leave a
Speaker 1: few weeks before. It was already a prize possession. He
Speaker 1: was really proud of it and curious to see how
Speaker 1: it would do in the altitude. He climbed into his
Speaker 1: plane and fired up the engine. The eight fighters and
Speaker 1: twelve bombers set out. Jeff was in the lead. It
Speaker 1: was three PM when they took to the skies. Fairly shortly,
Speaker 1: Jeff realized that things were going.
Speaker 2: Sideways, and I worried about one hundred miles out. I'd
Speaker 2: already used my fifty gallon and the main tank was
Speaker 2: not full. I was using guys like mad. That was
Speaker 2: a leak somewhere, I don't know where, it was, but
Speaker 2: I knew that I would never make it back.
Speaker 1: Something was up with the tank, and not just his.
Speaker 1: He watched as two of the other fighter pilots peeled
Speaker 1: off and returned to base.
Speaker 2: Two guys must have had the same trouble because they
Speaker 2: turned back. So that left six of us to do
Speaker 2: the job of protecting the dive bombers. Now we needed
Speaker 2: all the guns we could get up to him to
Speaker 2: protect the dove bombers, so they'll give a dead ducks.
Speaker 1: The bombers desperately needed the Wildcats to keep them safe
Speaker 1: and to fend off the Japanese attack that was sure
Speaker 1: to come. Jeff knew that when they got to the
Speaker 1: bombing site, he would most likely be engaged in a
Speaker 1: dog fight. Every evasive action he would take would cost
Speaker 1: him more precious fuel. Nevertheless, he made a decision he
Speaker 1: would stay and fight no matter the cost.
Speaker 2: Now, I'm not a brave man, but I have to
Speaker 2: live with myself if I quit. Now, that would be
Speaker 2: one last fighter pilot to go up there, so I
Speaker 2: decided to keep going.
Speaker 1: As the convoy reached the target area, the dive bombers descended,
Speaker 1: circling for marks, but Jeff realized they were no longer alone.
Speaker 1: Two Japanese floatplanes appeared from above, diving down towards the
Speaker 1: American bombers. Jeff had the advantage of altitude. He saw them,
Speaker 1: but they didn't see him. He lowered his Wildcat and
Speaker 1: got the rear floatplane in his sights. He led on
Speaker 1: a burst of gunfire, a direct hit. He watched as
Speaker 1: the aircraft went into a spiral and exploded. Then he
Speaker 1: settled behind the next one, right in the Japanese pilot's
Speaker 1: blind spot. He opened fire again. The floatplane climbed into
Speaker 1: the sky and shattered into a flash of light. Jeff
Speaker 1: and his wingman's sergeant, James Fullatin, climbed higher, searching for
Speaker 1: a safer outitude, but then they saw it, a swarm
Speaker 1: of Japanese fighter planes heading straight for them. Jeff swung
Speaker 1: his Wildcat below the group of enemy planes, shooting at
Speaker 1: the lead fighter. That plane caught fire but escaped. Another
Speaker 1: Japanese pilot spiraled up from the pack, trying to figure
Speaker 1: out what was happening. Jeff followed right on his tail.
Speaker 1: He got the fighter in his sight and picked it off.
Speaker 1: But now he and Phelason had the attention of the
Speaker 1: whole group of Japanese pilots. They were completely outnumbered, so
Speaker 1: the two Americans turned their wildcats towards each other, weaving
Speaker 1: back and forth covering each other's tails. Then Pelosin swung
Speaker 1: two wide and came straight into the crosshairs of one
Speaker 1: of the Japanese guns. Felatson took a hit to his engine.
Speaker 1: His plane started streaming black smoke. He had no choice
Speaker 1: but to bil out parachute into the ocean below the
Speaker 1: rest of them. The Japanese fighters scattered. For a moment,
Speaker 1: the sky was clear of the enemy, The sun was setting,
Speaker 1: and the window to return home and land safely was
Speaker 1: quickly disappearing. The American dive bombers assembled in formation. They
Speaker 1: had done their job. It was time to return to base.
Speaker 1: Jeff glanced at his fuel gauge and what he saw
Speaker 1: made his stomach turn. The dogfight had depleted his fuel
Speaker 1: even further, but he might have enough to make it
Speaker 1: close to Guadalcanal, close to where someone could find him
Speaker 1: rescue him if he had to build out. He was
Speaker 1: ready to head back when he noticed something out of
Speaker 1: the corner of his eye. Two enemy fighters on his tail.
Speaker 1: If he stopped to engage them. He would never make
Speaker 1: it back to safety, but he had to draw them
Speaker 1: away from the American bombers. That was what he had
Speaker 1: been sent on the mission to do. Out of fuel,
Speaker 1: thousands of feet in the air, ocean and jungle islands
Speaker 1: beneath him, and a choice to me. Well, after all,
Speaker 1: he told himself he'd grown up in the Louisiana swamps.
Speaker 1: He wasn't afraid of the jungle.
Speaker 2: I figured I knew enough about survival. I wasn't trained
Speaker 2: for him, but I was born and reared here in
Speaker 2: the chapel at mission, and I could survive if I
Speaker 2: hit the islands.
Speaker 1: So he decided once again to stay. He watched as
Speaker 1: the American bombers disappeared over the horizon to Guadalcanal and safety,
Speaker 1: and then he climbed higher to attack the two enemy
Speaker 1: planes head on. They closed the space in a heartbeat.
Speaker 1: He fired. The first Japanese plane caught fire, but it
Speaker 1: wasn't going down. Jeff realized the pilot planned to fly
Speaker 1: his burning fighter right into Jeff's Wildcat.
Speaker 2: This guy was shot. He knew he was dead. He
Speaker 2: caught fire and he was gonna ram me. He's coming
Speaker 2: straight toward me, he's still on fire, so I held
Speaker 2: the trigger down. He explored, and I flew through the pieces.
Speaker 1: Debris flew past him, hitting Jeff's plane, but his engine
Speaker 1: was still running. His Wildcat was still flying, and as
Speaker 1: far as he could tell, there was just one fighter left.
Speaker 1: He banked sharply to get on the tail of the
Speaker 1: second fighter plane as it sped by, but the pilot
Speaker 1: had guessed his plan and pulled up high above him.
Speaker 1: Then he came down straight towards Jeff.
Speaker 2: When I saw him coming down on him, he was
Speaker 2: picking up speed, and he was too anxious for the kill.
Speaker 2: And you get too anxious. You've seen birds that whale
Speaker 2: animals get too anxious to kill, the anticipate and they
Speaker 2: caught themselves. So he was coming down so fast that
Speaker 2: he didn't realize he was overtaken me. The normally the
Speaker 2: reaction let me get out of here and pressed the shit.
Speaker 2: If I'd pick up most being run away from him,
Speaker 2: that's your normal way of trying to present of your life,
Speaker 2: run away, but not in the final plan. Instead of
Speaker 2: trying to run away, I chopped his throttle, which slowed
Speaker 2: me up. Then I skidd it so he couldn't stay
Speaker 2: on my tail.
Speaker 1: In effect, Jeff slammed on the brakes, trying to force
Speaker 1: the Japanese pilot to overshoot him. It worked. The two
Speaker 1: pilots locked eyes.
Speaker 2: Win kipped to wing tip. When we looked at each
Speaker 2: other and I knew and he knew that he was
Speaker 2: a dead man.
Speaker 1: It was a moment that would stay with Jeff forever,
Speaker 1: that tension between seeing your adversary acknowledging his humanity and
Speaker 1: knowing what you were about to do to him, and
Speaker 1: yet his conscience was clean.
Speaker 2: A lot of polots rationalize, we don't shoot down or
Speaker 2: killed man, We just shoot down our planes. You know,
Speaker 2: that's a shield to take away the idea of haven't
Speaker 2: killed somebody. It doesn't work that way. You either kill
Speaker 2: or you be killed, okay, and you have no remorse
Speaker 2: for the enemy. He's ought to kill you. So the
Speaker 2: name of the game is you kill him before he
Speaker 2: kills you.
Speaker 1: Jeff fired, and the Japanese pilot's plane exploded for the
Speaker 1: first time in hours. Jeff seemed to be out of
Speaker 1: harm's way.
Speaker 2: I figured I hadn't made Let me go home, try
Speaker 2: to survive, and while I'm doing that, the sun is setting.
Speaker 1: He glanced at his watch. It was six pm. It
Speaker 1: would be dark soon.
Speaker 2: And that's when I got hit. The first bullet came
Speaker 2: through it over my left shoulder and took my watch
Speaker 2: off my wrist.
Speaker 1: He hadn't seen the new fighter planes behind him, but
Speaker 1: now they were lighting up his Wildcat with bullets. The
Speaker 1: instrument panel burst into flames, the engine lost power, his
Speaker 1: plane was disintegrating. As Jeff looked frantically around, he saw
Speaker 1: another fighter bank to take a run at him. He
Speaker 1: was a dead man.
Speaker 2: So I got out of that like a tall dog
Speaker 2: because the bullets were setting everything on fire and hitting
Speaker 2: the armor plate and everything else. But I was lucky.
Speaker 4: I was.
Speaker 2: I have a few shop Noel cuts, but I didn't
Speaker 2: realize it that but adrenaline was flowing so fast and
Speaker 2: I didn't even feel I was hurt.
Speaker 1: The only thing left to do was bell out. He
Speaker 1: was about three thousand feet somewhere over the western Solomon Islands.
Speaker 2: So I jumped out, trailed the ledge of the wing
Speaker 2: and pulled a rip cord, and flowing through the air
Speaker 2: was beautiful.
Speaker 1: Like I said, this is one extremely unflappable man.
Speaker 2: Man. That was the more sensational thing I ever did
Speaker 2: in my life, and it was outstand it.
Speaker 1: But then he hit the water harder than he'd anticipated.
Speaker 1: His gun, canteen and extra shells were ripped away from him.
Speaker 1: He managed to inflate his life jacket. When he broke
Speaker 1: the surface of the water, he could see shoreline ahead
Speaker 1: of him, but the current was sweeping him out to sea.
Speaker 1: Jeff knew he was bleeding, and he knew there were sharks.
Speaker 1: All aviators at the time were giving chlorine pills to
Speaker 1: break into the water to keep sharks away. So Jeff
Speaker 1: broke his as he swam and swam and swam. It
Speaker 1: would take six hours of swimming for Jeff to reach shore,
Speaker 1: dusk settling into full darkness, the stars coming out, and
Speaker 1: an unknowable amount of swimming left to do, but he
Speaker 1: kept going. Finally he reached the shore. He pulled himself
Speaker 1: up on the sand, tore off his life jacket, and
Speaker 1: ran across the beach to the underbrush. It might have
Speaker 1: been dark, but he knew the Japanese had a base
Speaker 1: on this island. He had seen it from the sky.
Speaker 1: He was an enemy terary.
Speaker 2: Now I knew enough to get off the beach and
Speaker 2: cover up my tracks. And I fell asleep.
Speaker 1: For the moment. He could rest, kind of like a
Speaker 1: worn out kid. Jeff could sleep pretty much anywhere. This
Speaker 1: place was Kullambungara Island. That night he found peace, but
Speaker 1: what awaited him on the island was every bit as
Speaker 1: dangerous as anything in the sky. Jeff de Blanc woke
Speaker 1: up to the filling of rain. He ached all over.
Speaker 1: He had a backpack with the basic survival kit, so
Speaker 1: he dressed his wounds as best as he could and
Speaker 1: had a bite of chocolate from his pack. He had
Speaker 1: no idea where to go or if the Allies knew
Speaker 1: he was still alive. He was pretty sure the Japanese did.
Speaker 1: One of the pilots had circled him as he was
Speaker 1: parachuting down.
Speaker 2: I had to figure, well, I'm an animate territory, and
Speaker 2: I know they're looking for him because the man circled
Speaker 2: in and they shot me arm, So they're looking for
Speaker 2: me definitely.
Speaker 1: Yet, somehow Jeff was convinced that he could survive in
Speaker 1: the jungle, maybe even still a plane off the Japanese
Speaker 1: base and get home. He started to trek inland. He
Speaker 1: had a knife in his pack and he walked with
Speaker 1: it out in front of him. The vegetation was so
Speaker 1: thick he found it easier to climb into the trees,
Speaker 1: moving above ground from one to the next. The second night,
Speaker 1: he fell asleep, this time in a tree, even though
Speaker 1: his wounds had started to bother him. The following morning,
Speaker 1: he spotted a grass hut in a small clearing. It
Speaker 1: had a straw sleeping mat inside, and Jeff gathered coconuts
Speaker 1: from the trees and rain water from where it had
Speaker 1: pulled on massive leaves. While exploring the jungle, he found
Speaker 1: a downed Allied fighter jet swarming with flies. He saw
Speaker 1: that the machine guns had been removed, and he shuddered
Speaker 1: had the Japanese been there? But then he saw bare
Speaker 1: foot prince surrounding the wreckage. He knew what that meant.
Speaker 1: One of the local indigenous tribes must live close by,
Speaker 1: because the Solomon Islands were populated, of course, by people
Speaker 1: who lived there for thousands of years, some Melanesians, some Polynesians.
Speaker 1: In fact, more than eighty different languages are spoken by
Speaker 1: the peoples of the Solomons, making it one of the
Speaker 1: Pacific's most diverse countries in terms of language and ethnicity.
Speaker 1: Jeff had known he wasn't alone, not really, but he
Speaker 1: didn't know if these islanders would be happy to see him.
Speaker 1: He didn't count on it. He gauged his safety by
Speaker 1: listening to the birds outside his hut. As long as
Speaker 1: they were singing, He told himself he was alone.
Speaker 2: And the birds are shanging. Everything is right on, no doubt,
Speaker 2: from the swamps just all over the world. That way,
Speaker 2: the birds are shanging. Fine.
Speaker 1: He spent a night in the little hut, and then
Speaker 1: another and another listening to the birds song, tending to
Speaker 1: his wounds, staying his same hopeful self. And then he
Speaker 1: woke one morning, and since something had shifted, the birds
Speaker 1: stopped singing.
Speaker 2: What does I tell you, I tell you in trouble.
Speaker 2: Something is out there.
Speaker 1: He grabbed his knife and walked to the door of
Speaker 1: the hut. A young islander stood there, about five foot two.
Speaker 2: He was grinning. Now why should he be grinning. I'm
Speaker 2: taller than he is. I have a knife, he has
Speaker 2: a machete. I can throw a knife, and I have
Speaker 2: had to fight him hand to hand. But for some
Speaker 2: reason for him to be grinning. And when I stepped
Speaker 2: out that hut, four or five others right there with macheads.
Speaker 1: Oh, Jeff thought that's why he was grinning. Jeff was
Speaker 1: totally outnumbered. He dropped his knife, but he wasn't exactly stressed.
Speaker 1: He wasn't an anxious guy, just in his twenty one
Speaker 1: year old, not particularly sophisticated way. He was a little
Speaker 1: worried that they might eat him.
Speaker 2: I could see myself in the pot.
Speaker 1: Yeah right. The men moved Jeff through the jungle to
Speaker 1: the water's edge. An outrigger canoe was waiting there, and
Speaker 1: they motioned for him to get inside.
Speaker 2: When it put me into twelve men out rigor. Then
Speaker 2: I knew they were going to trade me to the
Speaker 2: Japanese because they weren't friendly. They punched me in if
Speaker 2: i'd moved. The stick me with a knife, which means
Speaker 2: don't move, and I got the message in a hurry.
Speaker 1: They paddled along the shoreline for hours towards the village,
Speaker 1: towards the Japanese base. Jeff had no way of knowing.
Speaker 1: Finally they stopped and motioned Jeff out of the canoe.
Speaker 1: He followed them to a village where they put him
Speaker 1: in a bamboo cage with two guards set outside. Jeff waited.
Speaker 1: Even to unflappable Jeff, this was starting to seem pretty bad.
Speaker 1: Then six more Islanders entered the village. One of them
Speaker 1: was carrying a sack.
Speaker 2: When he walked into that compound, you could tell he
Speaker 2: had authority, and he had a ten poundshakaraj, which he
Speaker 2: put down at the feet of the men who held me.
Speaker 2: They let me go, and I quickly joined him, and
Speaker 2: we all took off head and oft of the jungles
Speaker 2: towards another village.
Speaker 1: Jeff wasn't sure what was happening, but he knew one thing.
Speaker 1: He had been traded for a sack of rice.
Speaker 2: When he threw a ten pound shack of rise non,
Speaker 2: I knew exactly how much I'm with a ten pound
Speaker 2: shock of riag. That's the value of my life.
Speaker 1: The new group of men walked for an hour without
Speaker 1: exchanging a word, and then the leader turned to Jeff
Speaker 1: and spoke to him in Pigeon, a dialect close enough
Speaker 1: to English that Jeff could understand. They weren't taking Jeff
Speaker 1: to be sold to the Japanese, he said, they were
Speaker 1: rescuing him. Unbeknownst to Jeff, a network of coast watchers
Speaker 1: had been hunting for him every bit as hard as
Speaker 1: the Japanese had. The coast watchers were largely British and
Speaker 1: Australian men, mostly civilians who had stayed in the Solomons
Speaker 1: after the Japanese invasion. Now they worked as Allied spies,
Speaker 1: hiding in the jungles to report on enemy activities. Islanders
Speaker 1: had been helping the Allied forces since the start of
Speaker 1: the war as well, working as guides providing valuable intelligence,
Speaker 1: leading down pilots like Jeff through the jungle to safety,
Speaker 1: often passing within inches of the enemy. They were the
Speaker 1: primary communication link between the coast watchers. There were also
Speaker 1: targets of the Japanese. That was the reason Jeff had
Speaker 1: been kept in the cage.
Speaker 2: In that first village, Japanese plans had shokued each village,
Speaker 2: you're looking for me, and did it see a white
Speaker 2: man in the village, that strafed the village and bombed
Speaker 2: regardless of the natives.
Speaker 1: That man, who had traded Jeff for the sack of rice,
Speaker 1: was named Ati Lu Ducolo. He was tasked with bringing
Speaker 1: Jeff miles across the Kullabangara Island, across the sea and
Speaker 1: onto the next largest island, which was called Vela la Vela.
Speaker 1: From there they could arrange for the Allies to pick
Speaker 1: Jeff up, but they would have to get there first.
Speaker 2: So we went to another village and I was in
Speaker 2: chief there. I'm stripped of the waists and everything else.
Speaker 2: I have my Marine Corps buckle. There the chief grabs
Speaker 2: my buckle. The intelligence officer said, if any native takes
Speaker 2: something from you, you take something from them. It's protocol.
Speaker 2: When he grabbed that buckle, I grabbed that spirit that
Speaker 2: he had. Well, we traded. In other words, he nodded, no, nodded,
Speaker 2: and I walked off with the spear.
Speaker 1: Jeff held tightly to that spear as he and Ati
Speaker 1: traveled on. They reached another twelve man out rigger canoe.
Speaker 1: They paddled in the darkness through a rainstorm, with nothing
Speaker 1: but the tides to guide them and daylight, and into
Speaker 1: another canoe. This time Ati made Jeff lie on the
Speaker 1: bottom and covered him with palm fronds. Being spotted by
Speaker 1: the Japanese would have meant death to them all. They
Speaker 1: paddled on swiftly, quietly, until finally they reached Vella La Vella.
Speaker 2: So they took Franze off of me.
Speaker 1: Jeff blinked and looked out from the Canoe.
Speaker 2: I see a big red borne, and I see a
Speaker 2: white man coming down with three natives. And he spoke
Speaker 2: Oxford English and said to me Lieutenant de Blanc. And
Speaker 2: he didn't mission a de Blanc or this or that.
Speaker 2: He came out in perfect French.
Speaker 1: It was Reverend A. W. E. Sylvester, a New Zealand
Speaker 1: missionary who had refused to evacuate the islands after the
Speaker 1: Japanese invasion. He was a coastwatcher too, That's how he
Speaker 1: knew who Jeff was. In fact, Sylvester himself had only
Speaker 1: survived the Japanese invasion because the Solomon Islanders had led
Speaker 1: him to safety, just as they had helped Jeff and
Speaker 1: the other stranded allies. Here's Sylvester speaking to an interviewer
Speaker 1: about it back in nineteen forty five.
Speaker 4: I certainly owe my life to the natives. One of
Speaker 4: my native teachers came and gave me the warning, and
Speaker 4: all my decisions regarding evacuation were made on their information.
Speaker 4: We never made a mistake during the services of the natives.
Speaker 4: The total number of people we evacuated were two hundred
Speaker 4: and fifty four from our island.
Speaker 1: Jeff couldn't have known it but his route from Ati
Speaker 1: to Sylvester to safety was one that the coast watchers
Speaker 1: and the Islanders had been perfecting for months. He had
Speaker 1: fallen into just the right place. Sylvester welcomed Jeff into
Speaker 1: his home, where Jeff, unsurprisingly slept like a log. He
Speaker 1: also got a piece of welcome news. His wingman Peloton
Speaker 1: had survived as well, wounded, ribs, broken, but alive. The
Speaker 1: following day was a Sunday, and the men were having
Speaker 1: a leisurely British cup of tea when an Islander ran
Speaker 1: up and whispered something in the Sylvester's ear. The minister
Speaker 1: put down his teacup.
Speaker 2: He said, well, we'll have to have mask now and
Speaker 2: then after Mass, you're gonna have to leave. I said why,
Speaker 2: He said, the Japanese are coming in. He said, I
Speaker 2: know you're a Catholic Initiative Church of England, which is
Speaker 2: not the same denomination process. But I said, please, I'll
Speaker 2: be on the first sheet, in the first row.
Speaker 1: And so in the middle of the jungle with the
Speaker 1: Japanese on their way, the group gathered and prayed. Then
Speaker 1: Jeff Ati and a few other Islanders booked it out.
Speaker 1: They wound up trekking for miles, finally reaching the village
Speaker 1: where Peloton had been hidden. Safety started to feel closer,
Speaker 1: but the two Marines would have to wait until an
Speaker 1: American rescue mission could be organized to take them back
Speaker 1: to Guadalcanal. Two coast watchers invited Jeff to hight to
Speaker 1: their secret outposts in the mountains, where he saw Japanese
Speaker 1: planes take off and land from nearby bases. Only then
Speaker 1: did he understand the extraordinary work these hidden ally spies
Speaker 1: had done and what risk they had taken to save
Speaker 1: Americans whenever they fell. On February twelfth, nineteen forty three,
Speaker 1: three days before Jeff's twenty second birthday, planes left Guadalcanal
Speaker 1: to pick up Jeff and his wingman. They were taken
Speaker 1: offshore in a canoe. Atti rode with them, safeguarding them
Speaker 1: until the end. The rescue plane landed, escorted by fighter pilots,
Speaker 1: within sight of three Japanese airfields.
Speaker 2: They picked us up when they run. Atti was the
Speaker 2: one who brought me back through the peaboat made underwater
Speaker 2: to pick up things. So they landed on the water,
Speaker 2: but didn't cut the engines up through my spear and
Speaker 2: there first and then jumped in after him.
Speaker 1: The men on board had risked their lives to get
Speaker 1: Jeff and Peloton just as Ati had. The pee boat
Speaker 1: took off, headed to Guadalcanal, and Jeff finally exhaled.
Speaker 2: I knew I was shaved.
Speaker 1: He had lived with this decision to not turn back,
Speaker 1: to stay and fight, and he had also lived. Jeff
Speaker 1: went on to serve a few more months in the Solomons.
Speaker 1: When he returned home on leave, his little town presented
Speaker 1: him with a watch to replace the one that had
Speaker 1: been blown off his wrist. He was awarded the Navy
Speaker 1: Cross for his actions in the Skies. That last day
Speaker 1: of January nineteen forty three, he volunteered for active service again.
Speaker 1: He flew missions during the Battle of Okinawa. He touched
Speaker 1: down in Japan after the war ended, curious to see
Speaker 1: what the country looked like, but he was ready to
Speaker 1: return home, specifically to Louise Burrard, his high school sweetheart.
Speaker 1: He had known her since she was the star ford
Speaker 1: of the championship girls basketball team, A dark haired beauty
Speaker 1: with a sweet smile. They got married. Jeff went to college,
Speaker 1: and then in December of nineteen forty six, he got
Speaker 1: a call he was told that he was going back
Speaker 1: into active duty. He couldn't understand it. Why he has
Speaker 1: served as country, he was a reservist. What active duty
Speaker 1: was going back to?
Speaker 2: I said what, I don't I'm a reserve. I'm not Oh,
Speaker 2: go go. We said, just to come to Washington to
Speaker 2: get into Medal of Bana said, you got to be joking.
Speaker 2: I said, shout it two men riding and they did.
Speaker 2: So they putting on active duty to go back. She
Speaker 2: wouldn't cast anything.
Speaker 1: Yep. They put him on active duty so that he
Speaker 1: wouldn't have to pay for the trip anyways. He and
Speaker 1: Louise went to Washington and President Harry Truman gave Jeff
Speaker 1: his Medal of Honor at the White House. Jeff went
Speaker 1: on to stay in the Marines as a reservist until
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two. He and Louise had five children, a
Speaker 1: girl and four boys. Jeff got advanced degrees in science
Speaker 1: and mathematics. He became a teacher. He taught middle and
Speaker 1: high school kids, and then he went back to the
Speaker 1: Solomon Islands four times. The first was in nineteen ninety
Speaker 1: two for the fiftieth anniversary of Guadalcanat. He went up
Speaker 1: in a plane, this time flown by someone else, and
Speaker 1: peered down over Kullabungara Island, searching for the hut where
Speaker 1: he'd hidden out so many decades before. And then in
Speaker 1: two thousand, he flew to Vella Lavella to be reunited
Speaker 1: with Ati Lo Ducolo, the man who had guided him
Speaker 1: on his treacherous path to safety. Jeff was taken by
Speaker 1: boat to ATI's village, where his former guide, now in
Speaker 1: his nineties, was waiting. The two hugged. They ate dinner together.
Speaker 1: They exchanged gifts. Fifty seven years had passed since they
Speaker 1: had met in the jungle. Since Atti saved Jeff's life,
Speaker 1: Jeff had never forgotten his bravery, or his kindness, or,
Speaker 1: of course, that ten pound bag of rice. Jeff de
Speaker 1: Blanc died in two thousand and seven at the age
Speaker 1: of eighty six. The spear he traded his belt buckle
Speaker 1: for now sits in the World War II Museum in
Speaker 1: New Orleans, Louisiana. Even at the end of his life,
Speaker 1: when asked about the Medal of Honor and his actions
Speaker 1: on January thirty first, nineteen forty three, Jeff brought everything
Speaker 1: back to one thing, not heroism, not bravery, but personal accountability.
Speaker 2: I could have used to turn back and nobody would
Speaker 2: have questioned it, because two guys did already. But I
Speaker 2: would have to live with myself because, no doubt in
Speaker 2: my mind, a lot of bombas would not have return,
Speaker 2: and that would be a part that I would have
Speaker 2: to be accountable for, and I don't like that.
Speaker 1: The kind of accountability Jeff is talking about isn't expectations
Speaker 1: from others or a job description. It's a personal ethos.
Speaker 1: It's the feeling of being sure what your values are
Speaker 1: and the determination to stick to those values no matter
Speaker 1: the cost. Some might call it a conscience. That little
Speaker 1: voice inside your head. That little voice told Jeff that
Speaker 1: if he turned back and abandoned his mission, he'd be
Speaker 1: turning back to a life he wouldn't want to lead.
Speaker 1: So he stayed and protected those bombers, even when he
Speaker 1: knew he might never make it home. I think that's
Speaker 1: why Jeff felt such peace when he found himself falling
Speaker 1: thousands of feet through the air, the empty ocean rising
Speaker 1: up to meet him, seeing this glorious beauty in the fall,
Speaker 1: with a conscience as light as a feather. Medal of honor.
Speaker 1: Stories of Courage is written by Meredith Rollins and produced
Speaker 1: by Meredith Rollins, Jeff Shane, and Zan Gabber. Our editor
Speaker 1: is Ben Nadaf Hoffrey. Sound design and additional music by
Speaker 1: Jake Gorski. Our executive producer is Constanza Gallardo. Fact checking
Speaker 1: by Arthur Gomperts. Original music by Eric Phillips. The rest
Speaker 1: of the team includes Carl Catele, Greta Cone, Christina Sullivan,
Speaker 1: Sarah Nix, Nicole Appendosh, Eric Sandler, Morgan Ratner, Jordan McMillan,
Speaker 1: Kira Posey, Owen Miller, Amy haggerdarn and Jake Flanagan. Special
Speaker 1: thanks to the series creator Dan McGinn, to the Congressional
Speaker 1: Medal of Honor Society, and to Ja to Anga the
Speaker 1: Audio visual Archive of Atiuroa, New Zealand. If you want
Speaker 1: to learn more about this story, take a look at
Speaker 1: our show notes, where we have some of the resources
Speaker 1: we use to put together this episode, including a book
Speaker 1: by the man himself, Jefferson de Blanc. We also want
Speaker 1: to hear from you. Send us your personal story of
Speaker 1: courage or highlight someone else's bravery. Email us at medalof
Speaker 1: Honor at Pushkin dot fm. You might hear your stories
Speaker 1: on future episodes of Medal of Honor, or see them
Speaker 1: on our social channels at Pushkin Pods. I'm your host, JR.
Speaker 1: Martinez