WEBVTT - The Optimism of Jefferson DeBlanc 0:00:01.440 --> 0:00:04.480 Hey everyone, We've put together a survey for listeners of 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:06.760 Medal of Honor and we want to hear from you. 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:09.240 Tell us what you love about the show, what we 0:00:09.280 --> 0:00:12.720 can improve on, or stories you think we've missed. We're 0:00:12.760 --> 0:00:15.840 committed to making this show even better and you can 0:00:15.920 --> 0:00:19.960 help to take the survey. Visit bit dot lee slash 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:27.320 h survey. That's bit dot l y slash mh survey. 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:41.479 The link is also in our show notes below. Pushkin 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:51.160 Jefferson de Blanc was falling through the air. The wind 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.840 roared in his ears, his shoulders were gripped by the 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:59.200 hardness of his parachute. He was plummeting thousands of feet 0:00:59.240 --> 0:01:03.280 towards the Pacific Ocean, having jumped seconds before from the 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:07.000 wreckage of his plane. He was hoping to land somewhere 0:01:07.040 --> 0:01:11.640 close to a shoreline, because as he was falling, night 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:16.440 was falling too. It was the evening of January thirty first, 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.520 nineteen forty three. Jeff was a Marine Corps fighter pilot, 0:01:21.080 --> 0:01:24.240 and for the past hour he had been battling Japanese 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:28.959 warplanes and the skies over the Solomon Islands, weaving in 0:01:29.040 --> 0:01:33.880 and out of enemy fighters, dodging bullets firing in return, 0:01:34.560 --> 0:01:38.680 and watching his good friend, his wingman, get blown out 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:44.400 of the air. Jeff himself had shot down several enemy planes. 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:47.680 He had looked directly in the eyes of one of 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:51.280 the men he had killed right before the man's plane exploded, 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:55.160 and then Jeff's own plane had been shot to bits, 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.800 the engine caught fire, and the plane fell apart around him. 0:02:00.480 --> 0:02:05.600 Not in minutes but in seconds. As Jeff scrambled onto 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.600 the wing and pulled the ripcord of his parachute, he 0:02:08.720 --> 0:02:11.640 knew that falling through the sky was the best of 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.800 a bunch of bad outcomes, because there was no chance 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:18.120 he survived in his plane, but there was a chance 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:22.680 he could survive the fall, a slim one. Maybe the 0:02:22.760 --> 0:02:26.960 water was filled with sharks, and even if he managed 0:02:26.960 --> 0:02:30.040 to get to land, the islands below him were occupied 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.360 by the Japanese military. He had seen their bases from 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.640 the sky. If he survived the swim, and that was 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:40.800 a big if, he would be stranded deep in enemy territory. 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.000 But his current predicament was the direct result of two 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.680 very specific decisions. He had made, one at the start 0:02:47.720 --> 0:02:51.280 of the battle and one at the end, but both 0:02:51.280 --> 0:02:56.560 were the same. To stay and fight say, even if 0:02:56.560 --> 0:03:00.320 it meant that this was the endgame. Plunging through the 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:04.720 atmosphere towards the water as the sun disappeared over the horizon, 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:09.440 Jeff de Blanc was twenty one years old, and somehow 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:14.720 he was incredibly calm, convinced that he wasn't going to die, 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.960 but how he would survive would be another story entirely. 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:26.919 I'm j R. Martinez and this is Medal of Honor 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:31.600 Stories of courage. The Medal of Honor is the highest 0:03:31.600 --> 0:03:35.960 military decoration in the United States, awarded for gallantry and 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:39.760 bravery and combat at the risk of life, above and 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.640 beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must be approved 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:45.960 all the way up the chain of command, from the 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:50.200 supervisory officer in the field to the White House. This 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.600 show is about those heroes, what they did, what it meant, 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:57.920 and what their stories tell us about the nature of 0:03:58.040 --> 0:04:03.400 courage and sacrifice. Jeff de Blanc's story is about long odds, 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:06.720 some of the longest I have ever heard, but that's 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:10.440 not the reason I love it. Jeff's story is incredible 0:04:10.440 --> 0:04:13.560 because it gets to something that's at the very heart 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:18.719 of the Medal of Honor, a key to answering the question, why, 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:22.720 in the name of protecting others do some people knowingly 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:27.920 do things that might kill them. To Jeff the answer 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:32.080 was clear. It was because he felt accountable. Not to 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:37.240 his country, or his comrades or a higher power. He 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:48.400 was accountable to himself. Jefferson de Blanc was born in 0:04:48.520 --> 0:04:52.599 nineteen twenty one. From a very early age, he was 0:04:52.640 --> 0:04:57.080 obsessed with aviation. Here he is talking about the moment 0:04:57.120 --> 0:04:59.200 he fell in love with it. When he was about 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:00.680 six or seven. 0:05:01.279 --> 0:05:04.880 An aeroplane came over a biplane and had engine trouble 0:05:05.760 --> 0:05:09.200 and landed in the pasture about a mile from all home. 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:12.480 So we all ran to see the aircraft. 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:18.400 That accent you hear in his voice, it's kajun. Jeff 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:21.760 was born in Louisiana, and he was descended from the 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.520 French speaking settlers of that region. He grew up in 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:31.800 the Bayous, specifically the Achafalaya basin the nation's largest river swamp, 0:05:32.360 --> 0:05:36.240 bigger than the Everglades. He spent his youth scrambling around 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:40.080 in the murky heat of those dense, junglely swamps. Not 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:44.040 a place where planes usually just fall out of the sky, 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.120 but to a kid on that bayou. This was a 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.040 dream come true. 0:05:49.120 --> 0:05:51.160 And of course I was the first one to get there. 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:54.120 And when I got there for a reward, he picked 0:05:54.160 --> 0:05:57.240 me up and put me in a cockpit and I 0:05:57.240 --> 0:06:00.360 looked at the dials. I was caught and hooked dot 0:06:00.360 --> 0:06:04.480 in my mind. The instrumentation was fascinating and that's how 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:05.640 I got hooked on aviation. 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:09.440 From then on out, you will come to know something 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:12.840 special about Jeff. Once he sets his mind to something, 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:18.200 decides to do something, that's it. It just sticks. From 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.880 a one time encounter with the plane as a kid, 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.880 he picked a life path and stuck to it. He 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:28.360 went to college in nineteen thirty eight, and by thirty nine, 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.479 with war escalating in Europe, the government started training civilians 0:06:32.520 --> 0:06:35.920 to fly. Jeff signed up for flight school as quickly 0:06:36.000 --> 0:06:39.800 as he possibly could. In July of forty one, at 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:42.839 the age of nineteen, he joined the Navy with the 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:46.880 plan of becoming a fighter pilot. The attack on Pearl 0:06:46.920 --> 0:06:51.320 Harbor put pilot training on hyper speed. With the declaration 0:06:51.400 --> 0:06:55.080 of war, the military had to turn out aviators in 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:59.559 record time, which meant that Jeff barely got two hundred 0:06:59.560 --> 0:07:02.920 and fifty hours of flight training before he was shipped out. 0:07:03.600 --> 0:07:07.279 No lessons in dog fighting tactics, almost no instruction on 0:07:07.400 --> 0:07:08.880 how to fire guns. 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:13.640 And we did not have any schalvival training. The name 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:16.680 of the game was get the bodies odd fast, and 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:17.520 that's what they did. 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.240 Jeff graduated from flight school, but then he was told 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:23.840 the one thing that no fighter pilot wants to hear. 0:07:24.760 --> 0:07:27.480 The Navy needs you to fly reconnaissance aircraft. 0:07:27.720 --> 0:07:29.600 They were going to make a peboard pilot out of me, 0:07:29.640 --> 0:07:31.480 and I didn't want it. I wanted fighters. 0:07:31.960 --> 0:07:35.640 So Jeff transferred to the Marines. There he could be 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:41.840 a fighter pilot. In the summer of nineteen forty two, 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:45.440 he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps Reserve. 0:07:46.240 --> 0:07:50.160 His airplan would be the F four F Wildcat, rugged 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.960 and easy to maneuver, with six machine guns mounted on 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:57.840 the wings. It had a flying range of several hundred miles, 0:07:58.280 --> 0:08:01.760 but any dog fighting would burn fuel quickly. You could 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.600 strap on an extra fifty gallon fuel tank, but that 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.400 tended to have problems, including making the plane more difficult 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.440 to fly and easier to blow up. Jeff couldn't wait 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.480 to start flying Wildcats, but he hadn't trained in them 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:18.680 at all. Before he fought in one for the first time, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:23.920 he had only flown a wildcat for nine hours, almost nothing. 0:08:24.880 --> 0:08:27.440 He would have to turn that nothing into something pretty 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:31.040 fast because he was shipping out to the Solomon Islands, 0:08:31.080 --> 0:08:36.400 specifically Guadalcanal. We've talked about Guadalcanal before on this show. 0:08:36.960 --> 0:08:39.160 Last season we told the story of Doug mon Roe, 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:42.160 the Coastguard signal men who died during one of the 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.440 early battles there. In the months after Pearl Harbor, the 0:08:46.520 --> 0:08:50.960 Japanese Empire had gained footholds throughout the Pacific, the Philippines, 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:56.800 Eastern China, Singapore, New Guinea, and Moore. Their goal was 0:08:56.800 --> 0:09:00.880 to move eastward to threaten Hawaii, and southward to cut 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:04.400 off Australia from the rest of the Allied forces. The 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.600 Allies were going to have to stop them if there 0:09:06.679 --> 0:09:10.480 was any hope of winning the war, so the Allies 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.280 set their sights on the Solomons, a chain of more 0:09:13.320 --> 0:09:17.360 than nine hundred islands scattered over eleven thousand square miles 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:22.199 in the South Pacific. In nineteen forty two, they invaded Guadalcanal, 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:25.240 the biggest of the islands, where the Japanese had carved 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:29.600 out an airfield. The Allies captured the airfield dug In 0:09:30.040 --> 0:09:32.280 and used it as a staging ground to take on 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:32.800 the enemy. 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:35.640 This is the airfield on the island of guadal Canal 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:37.920 in the Solomons, for the possession of which so much 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.640 heavy fighting has taken place in American hands. It's become 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:44.920 a vitally important base from which to bum Japanese warships 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:45.839 and convoys. 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:49.040 Fighter pilots and Wildcats would escort dive bombers as they 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.360 went to strife the Japanese. The Wildcats would take on 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:55.640 these Japanese floatplanes and fighter jets so that the bombers 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.120 could get close to their targets. You could have sent 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:01.440 out bombers without the Wildcats. They needed that protection if 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:03.400 they were going to get to their targets and get 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:08.920 home safely. These aerial missions were inherently dangerous, and estimated 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.840 four hundred and twenty American pilots would eventually lose their 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.080 lives in the skies over the Solomons, and so in 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:19.560 November of forty two, three months after the start of 0:10:19.559 --> 0:10:23.840 this campaign, Jeff arrived in Guadalcanal. The terrain of the 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:29.600 Solomon Islands reminded him of Louisiana, the relentless heat, the mosquitoes. 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.120 None of that was new to him. He was, as ever, 0:10:33.440 --> 0:10:37.520 completely calm, full of hope, and a kind of giddy, 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:42.079 youthful faith. He told himself, I could survive here if 0:10:42.080 --> 0:10:46.040 I had to. Soon enough, he would put that theory 0:10:46.080 --> 0:11:03.800 to the test. The months passed and the Battle of 0:11:03.840 --> 0:11:08.160 Guadalcanal ground on. The US troops still only held the airfield, 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:11.120 while the Japanese were elsewhere on the island and on 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:15.800 bases scattered throughout the Solomons. Both sides had lost thousands 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.240 of men, and yet as the years slowly turned to 0:11:19.440 --> 0:11:24.320 nineteen forty three, it seemed that neither would budge. On 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.560 the afternoon of January thirty first, Jeff was given a mission. 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.600 Boyd came down from fire to command that a Japanese 0:11:32.880 --> 0:11:37.400 invasion fleet was coming down with ships to probably reinforce 0:11:37.440 --> 0:11:42.120 Guadacanal for the final fight. So they scrambled US eight 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.200 fire to Polish to go up after Escort twelve Dove 0:11:45.320 --> 0:11:51.719 bombers to hit a Japanese destroyers and ships that were 0:11:51.720 --> 0:11:55.520 in the Columbangala area, and Velo Novello two hundred and 0:11:55.520 --> 0:12:00.880 fifty miles outs beyond the range of the Wildcat, so 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:03.680 we had to strap on a wing tank of fifty 0:12:03.720 --> 0:12:04.640 gallons to make it. 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.280 That fifty gallon tank of fuel was going to be 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:11.320 the difference between the fighter pilots making it all the 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:13.319 way out to the fight and back to the base 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:18.360 or potentially having to bel out of their aircraft somewhere 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:22.240 over the ocean fuel tanks on empty. But it was 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:27.480 also a liability. Jeff, as usual, was unfazed. He strapped 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:29.240 on a watch he had just bought on leave a 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:34.200 few weeks before. It was already a prize possession. He 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.920 was really proud of it and curious to see how 0:12:36.920 --> 0:12:40.160 it would do in the altitude. He climbed into his 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:43.520 plane and fired up the engine. The eight fighters and 0:12:43.600 --> 0:12:47.720 twelve bombers set out. Jeff was in the lead. It 0:12:47.800 --> 0:12:51.559 was three PM when they took to the skies. Fairly shortly, 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:53.760 Jeff realized that things were going. 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.959 Sideways, and I worried about one hundred miles out. I'd 0:12:58.000 --> 0:13:00.920 already used my fifty gallon and the main tank was 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.880 not full. I was using guys like mad. That was 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:06.160 a leak somewhere, I don't know where, it was, but 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:07.960 I knew that I would never make it back. 0:13:08.800 --> 0:13:11.400 Something was up with the tank, and not just his. 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.480 He watched as two of the other fighter pilots peeled 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.160 off and returned to base. 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.280 Two guys must have had the same trouble because they 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.080 turned back. So that left six of us to do 0:13:23.160 --> 0:13:26.920 the job of protecting the dive bombers. Now we needed 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.040 all the guns we could get up to him to 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.760 protect the dove bombers, so they'll give a dead ducks. 0:13:32.520 --> 0:13:36.000 The bombers desperately needed the Wildcats to keep them safe 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:38.280 and to fend off the Japanese attack that was sure 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:41.240 to come. Jeff knew that when they got to the 0:13:41.280 --> 0:13:44.360 bombing site, he would most likely be engaged in a 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:48.920 dog fight. Every evasive action he would take would cost 0:13:48.960 --> 0:13:54.200 him more precious fuel. Nevertheless, he made a decision he 0:13:54.240 --> 0:13:57.120 would stay and fight no matter the cost. 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.120 Now, I'm not a brave man, but I have to 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.440 live with myself if I quit. Now, that would be 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:06.199 one last fighter pilot to go up there, so I 0:14:06.320 --> 0:14:07.360 decided to keep going. 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:12.400 As the convoy reached the target area, the dive bombers descended, 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:17.400 circling for marks, but Jeff realized they were no longer alone. 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:23.320 Two Japanese floatplanes appeared from above, diving down towards the 0:14:23.360 --> 0:14:27.880 American bombers. Jeff had the advantage of altitude. He saw them, 0:14:28.400 --> 0:14:32.040 but they didn't see him. He lowered his Wildcat and 0:14:32.080 --> 0:14:35.320 got the rear floatplane in his sights. He led on 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:39.320 a burst of gunfire, a direct hit. He watched as 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.920 the aircraft went into a spiral and exploded. Then he 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:46.560 settled behind the next one, right in the Japanese pilot's 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:51.200 blind spot. He opened fire again. The floatplane climbed into 0:14:51.240 --> 0:14:54.840 the sky and shattered into a flash of light. Jeff 0:14:54.880 --> 0:14:59.160 and his wingman's sergeant, James Fullatin, climbed higher, searching for 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:03.480 a safer outitude, but then they saw it, a swarm 0:15:03.640 --> 0:15:09.400 of Japanese fighter planes heading straight for them. Jeff swung 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.400 his Wildcat below the group of enemy planes, shooting at 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.520 the lead fighter. That plane caught fire but escaped. Another 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:19.760 Japanese pilot spiraled up from the pack, trying to figure 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:23.880 out what was happening. Jeff followed right on his tail. 0:15:24.160 --> 0:15:27.160 He got the fighter in his sight and picked it off. 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:30.560 But now he and Phelason had the attention of the 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:35.320 whole group of Japanese pilots. They were completely outnumbered, so 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:39.360 the two Americans turned their wildcats towards each other, weaving 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:44.480 back and forth covering each other's tails. Then Pelosin swung 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:47.960 two wide and came straight into the crosshairs of one 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.520 of the Japanese guns. Felatson took a hit to his engine. 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:55.720 His plane started streaming black smoke. He had no choice 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:59.600 but to bil out parachute into the ocean below the 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.000 rest of them. The Japanese fighters scattered. For a moment, 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:07.400 the sky was clear of the enemy, The sun was setting, 0:16:08.120 --> 0:16:10.920 and the window to return home and land safely was 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:17.200 quickly disappearing. The American dive bombers assembled in formation. They 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:20.400 had done their job. It was time to return to base. 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:24.640 Jeff glanced at his fuel gauge and what he saw 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:28.920 made his stomach turn. The dogfight had depleted his fuel 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:32.280 even further, but he might have enough to make it 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:35.840 close to Guadalcanal, close to where someone could find him 0:16:36.480 --> 0:16:40.120 rescue him if he had to build out. He was 0:16:40.160 --> 0:16:42.040 ready to head back when he noticed something out of 0:16:42.040 --> 0:16:46.120 the corner of his eye. Two enemy fighters on his tail. 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:50.440 If he stopped to engage them. He would never make 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:53.560 it back to safety, but he had to draw them 0:16:53.600 --> 0:16:56.640 away from the American bombers. That was what he had 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.720 been sent on the mission to do. Out of fuel, 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.760 thousands of feet in the air, ocean and jungle islands 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.160 beneath him, and a choice to me. Well, after all, 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.800 he told himself he'd grown up in the Louisiana swamps. 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:14.639 He wasn't afraid of the jungle. 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.040 I figured I knew enough about survival. I wasn't trained 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.119 for him, but I was born and reared here in 0:17:20.200 --> 0:17:22.399 the chapel at mission, and I could survive if I 0:17:22.480 --> 0:17:23.560 hit the islands. 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:29.760 So he decided once again to stay. He watched as 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:35.400 the American bombers disappeared over the horizon to Guadalcanal and safety, 0:17:36.040 --> 0:17:39.280 and then he climbed higher to attack the two enemy 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:42.840 planes head on. They closed the space in a heartbeat. 0:17:43.200 --> 0:17:47.320 He fired. The first Japanese plane caught fire, but it 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:51.920 wasn't going down. Jeff realized the pilot planned to fly 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.760 his burning fighter right into Jeff's Wildcat. 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:58.480 This guy was shot. He knew he was dead. He 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:00.800 caught fire and he was gonna ram me. He's coming 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:03.600 straight toward me, he's still on fire, so I held 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.000 the trigger down. He explored, and I flew through the pieces. 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:12.280 Debris flew past him, hitting Jeff's plane, but his engine 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:17.000 was still running. His Wildcat was still flying, and as 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:20.879 far as he could tell, there was just one fighter left. 0:18:21.760 --> 0:18:23.840 He banked sharply to get on the tail of the 0:18:23.880 --> 0:18:27.440 second fighter plane as it sped by, but the pilot 0:18:27.520 --> 0:18:30.960 had guessed his plan and pulled up high above him. 0:18:31.440 --> 0:18:34.720 Then he came down straight towards Jeff. 0:18:35.560 --> 0:18:38.359 When I saw him coming down on him, he was 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.520 picking up speed, and he was too anxious for the kill. 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:44.240 And you get too anxious. You've seen birds that whale 0:18:44.359 --> 0:18:47.200 animals get too anxious to kill, the anticipate and they 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:51.119 caught themselves. So he was coming down so fast that 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:54.119 he didn't realize he was overtaken me. The normally the 0:18:54.160 --> 0:18:56.320 reaction let me get out of here and pressed the shit. 0:18:56.320 --> 0:18:58.120 If I'd pick up most being run away from him, 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:00.879 that's your normal way of trying to present of your life, 0:19:01.560 --> 0:19:04.720 run away, but not in the final plan. Instead of 0:19:04.760 --> 0:19:08.199 trying to run away, I chopped his throttle, which slowed 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:11.080 me up. Then I skidd it so he couldn't stay 0:19:11.119 --> 0:19:11.640 on my tail. 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.879 In effect, Jeff slammed on the brakes, trying to force 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:21.440 the Japanese pilot to overshoot him. It worked. The two 0:19:21.520 --> 0:19:23.040 pilots locked eyes. 0:19:23.800 --> 0:19:25.560 Win kipped to wing tip. When we looked at each 0:19:25.600 --> 0:19:28.000 other and I knew and he knew that he was 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:28.720 a dead man. 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.480 It was a moment that would stay with Jeff forever, 0:19:33.560 --> 0:19:39.479 that tension between seeing your adversary acknowledging his humanity and 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.040 knowing what you were about to do to him, and 0:19:43.119 --> 0:19:45.240 yet his conscience was clean. 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:50.240 A lot of polots rationalize, we don't shoot down or 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:54.080 killed man, We just shoot down our planes. You know, 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.320 that's a shield to take away the idea of haven't 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:01.440 killed somebody. It doesn't work that way. You either kill 0:20:01.600 --> 0:20:06.679 or you be killed, okay, and you have no remorse 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:09.000 for the enemy. He's ought to kill you. So the 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:10.919 name of the game is you kill him before he 0:20:11.040 --> 0:20:11.439 kills you. 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:16.960 Jeff fired, and the Japanese pilot's plane exploded for the 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:19.760 first time in hours. Jeff seemed to be out of 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:20.440 harm's way. 0:20:21.080 --> 0:20:23.240 I figured I hadn't made Let me go home, try 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.600 to survive, and while I'm doing that, the sun is setting. 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.480 He glanced at his watch. It was six pm. It 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:32.600 would be dark soon. 0:20:33.240 --> 0:20:36.760 And that's when I got hit. The first bullet came 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:38.680 through it over my left shoulder and took my watch 0:20:38.720 --> 0:20:39.399 off my wrist. 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:43.119 He hadn't seen the new fighter planes behind him, but 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:46.320 now they were lighting up his Wildcat with bullets. The 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:51.199 instrument panel burst into flames, the engine lost power, his 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:56.320 plane was disintegrating. As Jeff looked frantically around, he saw 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:59.520 another fighter bank to take a run at him. He 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:01.160 was a dead man. 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:03.960 So I got out of that like a tall dog 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:07.880 because the bullets were setting everything on fire and hitting 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:09.920 the armor plate and everything else. But I was lucky. 0:21:09.960 --> 0:21:10.199 I was. 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.200 I have a few shop Noel cuts, but I didn't 0:21:13.240 --> 0:21:15.840 realize it that but adrenaline was flowing so fast and 0:21:16.359 --> 0:21:17.640 I didn't even feel I was hurt. 0:21:18.440 --> 0:21:23.040 The only thing left to do was bell out. He 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:28.200 was about three thousand feet somewhere over the western Solomon Islands. 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:31.000 So I jumped out, trailed the ledge of the wing 0:21:31.119 --> 0:21:34.360 and pulled a rip cord, and flowing through the air 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:35.240 was beautiful. 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:41.160 Like I said, this is one extremely unflappable man. 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:44.399 Man. That was the more sensational thing I ever did 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:48.240 in my life, and it was outstand it. 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:52.720 But then he hit the water harder than he'd anticipated. 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:58.040 His gun, canteen and extra shells were ripped away from him. 0:21:58.520 --> 0:22:01.560 He managed to inflate his life jacket. When he broke 0:22:01.600 --> 0:22:04.320 the surface of the water, he could see shoreline ahead 0:22:04.320 --> 0:22:07.560 of him, but the current was sweeping him out to sea. 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:11.560 Jeff knew he was bleeding, and he knew there were sharks. 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:15.119 All aviators at the time were giving chlorine pills to 0:22:15.119 --> 0:22:18.240 break into the water to keep sharks away. So Jeff 0:22:18.280 --> 0:22:24.800 broke his as he swam and swam and swam. It 0:22:24.840 --> 0:22:28.400 would take six hours of swimming for Jeff to reach shore, 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:35.320 dusk settling into full darkness, the stars coming out, and 0:22:35.400 --> 0:22:38.960 an unknowable amount of swimming left to do, but he 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:45.320 kept going. Finally he reached the shore. He pulled himself 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:48.000 up on the sand, tore off his life jacket, and 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:51.520 ran across the beach to the underbrush. It might have 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:54.520 been dark, but he knew the Japanese had a base 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:57.000 on this island. He had seen it from the sky. 0:22:57.920 --> 0:23:00.480 He was an enemy terary. 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:03.439 Now I knew enough to get off the beach and 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:05.600 cover up my tracks. And I fell asleep. 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:09.919 For the moment. He could rest, kind of like a 0:23:10.000 --> 0:23:14.919 worn out kid. Jeff could sleep pretty much anywhere. This 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:20.879 place was Kullambungara Island. That night he found peace, but 0:23:20.880 --> 0:23:23.480 what awaited him on the island was every bit as 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:30.720 dangerous as anything in the sky. Jeff de Blanc woke 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:33.320 up to the filling of rain. He ached all over. 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:36.479 He had a backpack with the basic survival kit, so 0:23:36.520 --> 0:23:39.320 he dressed his wounds as best as he could and 0:23:39.400 --> 0:23:42.240 had a bite of chocolate from his pack. He had 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:44.920 no idea where to go or if the Allies knew 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:48.880 he was still alive. He was pretty sure the Japanese did. 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:51.520 One of the pilots had circled him as he was 0:23:51.600 --> 0:23:52.560 parachuting down. 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:55.399 I had to figure, well, I'm an animate territory, and 0:23:55.440 --> 0:23:57.560 I know they're looking for him because the man circled 0:23:57.600 --> 0:23:59.800 in and they shot me arm, So they're looking for 0:23:59.840 --> 0:24:00.639 me definitely. 0:24:02.000 --> 0:24:04.960 Yet, somehow Jeff was convinced that he could survive in 0:24:05.000 --> 0:24:09.520 the jungle, maybe even still a plane off the Japanese 0:24:09.600 --> 0:24:13.960 base and get home. He started to trek inland. He 0:24:14.000 --> 0:24:15.959 had a knife in his pack and he walked with 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:18.879 it out in front of him. The vegetation was so 0:24:19.080 --> 0:24:22.360 thick he found it easier to climb into the trees, 0:24:22.760 --> 0:24:26.840 moving above ground from one to the next. The second night, 0:24:26.880 --> 0:24:30.520 he fell asleep, this time in a tree, even though 0:24:30.560 --> 0:24:34.240 his wounds had started to bother him. The following morning, 0:24:34.560 --> 0:24:37.320 he spotted a grass hut in a small clearing. It 0:24:37.400 --> 0:24:41.200 had a straw sleeping mat inside, and Jeff gathered coconuts 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:43.880 from the trees and rain water from where it had 0:24:43.920 --> 0:24:48.320 pulled on massive leaves. While exploring the jungle, he found 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:53.080 a downed Allied fighter jet swarming with flies. He saw 0:24:53.119 --> 0:24:56.000