Son of Dakota and Margret Powers Blair. Brother of Everette, Woodrow, Daisy and Malvia. Paternal grandson of Jacob and Sallie Johnson Blair. Maternal grandson of James Harvey and Elizabeth Sutherland Powers. Wife of Muriel Agnes Blair.
US Navy--Nov 23, 1929 - Feb 19, 1942 Killed Aboard The William B. Preston, Awarded Silver Star And Purple Heart. Naval Vessel Named In His Honor, Destroyer Escort USS Blair
---
Gene Blair of Virginia, the Man and the Ship
Written by Maureen Franklin
and Fredrick E. Blair
Noble Eugene "Gene" Blair was born at Bucu on Frying Pan Creek in Dickenson County, Va., April 26, 1909. His parents were Dakota and Margaret (Powers) Blair. Dakota was the son of Jacob Blair IV and Sarah (Johnson) and the line goes back to the Irish immigrant Jacob I and his Cherokee wife whose name is unknown.
Gene enlisted in the U.S. Navy on Nov. 23, 1929. After Boot Camp in Hampton Roads, Va., he served on several destroyers and destroyer tenders. About 1937 he married Muriel Agnes (___) of Providence RI, where they established their home. There were no children.
During his third enlistment he was assigned to the small seaplane tender USS William B. Preston. The Preston was assigned to the Asiatic Fleet and was there at the outbreak of war in 1941. She tended the flying boats of Patrol Wing 10, first in Philippine waters, then in the Netherlands East Indies before ending up in Port Darwin, Australia in mid-February 1942. Gene by this time had been promoted to Chief Machinist's Mate and was a member of the Damage Control and Repair Party.
Planes from four of the Japanese carriers that had attacked the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor struck Port Darwin in the morning of February 19th, 1942. The Preston got underway immediately and headed for the open sea. The attack developed rapidly. Gene ignored the risk of being trapped below, and raced to the lower decks to close hatches and watertight doors and ensure the ship's watertight integrity.
Just as he finished, at 10:10 AM, a bomb struck the ship in the compartment in which he was standing, killing him and others instantly. His efficient performance of duty had limited the flooding of the ship to two compartments, preventing the after section of the shop from filling, and saving the ship from sinking. For his action, cited as "Gallantry above and beyond the call of duty," Gene was posthumously awarded the prestigious Silver Star along with the Purple Heart.
Three men were lost and eleven were killed in this action. There was no chance for shore burial, and at 6:25 that evening the crew conducted services for Gene and his shipmates and buried them at sea just Northwest of Darwin. He was the first fatality of the war from Dickenson County. A marker placed in the family cemetery on Blair Ridge commemorates his death.
The following year, in recognition of his heroism, a ship was named his honor. The Destroyer Escort USS Blair (DE-147) was launched at Orange, Texas, on April 6, 1943 and commissioned that September. She performed various training exercises before being assigned convoy escort duties, making her first cruises to North Africa. In 1944 she made 10 round-trips to England, France and Ireland, sailing in waters then commanded by that huge and infamous killing machine, the German submarine fleet.
The Blair then sailed for Hawaii, arriving in August of 1944. After the war she returned to the U.S., was decommissioned and placed in the Reserve Fleet at Green Cove Springs, FL in June, 1946. As the Korean War developed, the Blair was recommissioned on Oct. 5, 1951 and used in various training operations sailing out of Jacksonville, Norfolk, Newport and Key West.
She was placed out of commission again for conversion to a radar picket ship. Recommissioned in 1957, equipped with long-range aircraft detection and altitude-finding radars, she joined the Early Warning Barrier of ships and planes guarding American shores from surprise nuclear attack. She sailed barrier patrols from Pearl Harbor until the spring of 1960.
The ship then then sailed to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA, where in June of 1960 she was placed out of commission for the final time. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on Dec. 1, 1972 and in 1974 was sold to the West Waterway Lumber Company of Seattle, WA. The Blair was eventually broken up for scrap.
Chief Petty Officer Noble Eugene Blair was killed early in the war, but part of him lived on, his valor continued. He lived on in a small warship crewed by men of his sort, duty-bound, honor-bound, incredibly brave men who served our country well under the most perilous of conditions. It is fitting that now and then we ponder upon men such as this man, and upon ships such as this ship, and upon the men who manned her and all the thousands more, with gratitude to them, and with pride in their service.
~~~~~
Body buried at sea
Military Headstone in the Blair Family Cemtery, Blair Ridge, Dickenson County, Virginia
~~~~~
U.S. WWII Military Personnel Missing In Action or Lost At Sea, 1941-1946
Name: Eugene Blair
Date of Loss: 19 Feb 1942 0
Branch: U.S. Navy
Rank: CMM
Service Number: 2655751
Status: Lost at Sea
Son of Dakota and Margret Powers Blair. Brother of Everette, Woodrow, Daisy and Malvia. Paternal grandson of Jacob and Sallie Johnson Blair. Maternal grandson of James Harvey and Elizabeth Sutherland Powers. Wife of Muriel Agnes Blair.
US Navy--Nov 23, 1929 - Feb 19, 1942 Killed Aboard The William B. Preston, Awarded Silver Star And Purple Heart. Naval Vessel Named In His Honor, Destroyer Escort USS Blair
---
Gene Blair of Virginia, the Man and the Ship
Written by Maureen Franklin
and Fredrick E. Blair
Noble Eugene "Gene" Blair was born at Bucu on Frying Pan Creek in Dickenson County, Va., April 26, 1909. His parents were Dakota and Margaret (Powers) Blair. Dakota was the son of Jacob Blair IV and Sarah (Johnson) and the line goes back to the Irish immigrant Jacob I and his Cherokee wife whose name is unknown.
Gene enlisted in the U.S. Navy on Nov. 23, 1929. After Boot Camp in Hampton Roads, Va., he served on several destroyers and destroyer tenders. About 1937 he married Muriel Agnes (___) of Providence RI, where they established their home. There were no children.
During his third enlistment he was assigned to the small seaplane tender USS William B. Preston. The Preston was assigned to the Asiatic Fleet and was there at the outbreak of war in 1941. She tended the flying boats of Patrol Wing 10, first in Philippine waters, then in the Netherlands East Indies before ending up in Port Darwin, Australia in mid-February 1942. Gene by this time had been promoted to Chief Machinist's Mate and was a member of the Damage Control and Repair Party.
Planes from four of the Japanese carriers that had attacked the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor struck Port Darwin in the morning of February 19th, 1942. The Preston got underway immediately and headed for the open sea. The attack developed rapidly. Gene ignored the risk of being trapped below, and raced to the lower decks to close hatches and watertight doors and ensure the ship's watertight integrity.
Just as he finished, at 10:10 AM, a bomb struck the ship in the compartment in which he was standing, killing him and others instantly. His efficient performance of duty had limited the flooding of the ship to two compartments, preventing the after section of the shop from filling, and saving the ship from sinking. For his action, cited as "Gallantry above and beyond the call of duty," Gene was posthumously awarded the prestigious Silver Star along with the Purple Heart.
Three men were lost and eleven were killed in this action. There was no chance for shore burial, and at 6:25 that evening the crew conducted services for Gene and his shipmates and buried them at sea just Northwest of Darwin. He was the first fatality of the war from Dickenson County. A marker placed in the family cemetery on Blair Ridge commemorates his death.
The following year, in recognition of his heroism, a ship was named his honor. The Destroyer Escort USS Blair (DE-147) was launched at Orange, Texas, on April 6, 1943 and commissioned that September. She performed various training exercises before being assigned convoy escort duties, making her first cruises to North Africa. In 1944 she made 10 round-trips to England, France and Ireland, sailing in waters then commanded by that huge and infamous killing machine, the German submarine fleet.
The Blair then sailed for Hawaii, arriving in August of 1944. After the war she returned to the U.S., was decommissioned and placed in the Reserve Fleet at Green Cove Springs, FL in June, 1946. As the Korean War developed, the Blair was recommissioned on Oct. 5, 1951 and used in various training operations sailing out of Jacksonville, Norfolk, Newport and Key West.
She was placed out of commission again for conversion to a radar picket ship. Recommissioned in 1957, equipped with long-range aircraft detection and altitude-finding radars, she joined the Early Warning Barrier of ships and planes guarding American shores from surprise nuclear attack. She sailed barrier patrols from Pearl Harbor until the spring of 1960.
The ship then then sailed to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Bremerton, WA, where in June of 1960 she was placed out of commission for the final time. She was stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on Dec. 1, 1972 and in 1974 was sold to the West Waterway Lumber Company of Seattle, WA. The Blair was eventually broken up for scrap.
Chief Petty Officer Noble Eugene Blair was killed early in the war, but part of him lived on, his valor continued. He lived on in a small warship crewed by men of his sort, duty-bound, honor-bound, incredibly brave men who served our country well under the most perilous of conditions. It is fitting that now and then we ponder upon men such as this man, and upon ships such as this ship, and upon the men who manned her and all the thousands more, with gratitude to them, and with pride in their service.
~~~~~
Body buried at sea
Military Headstone in the Blair Family Cemtery, Blair Ridge, Dickenson County, Virginia
~~~~~
U.S. WWII Military Personnel Missing In Action or Lost At Sea, 1941-1946
Name: Eugene Blair
Date of Loss: 19 Feb 1942 0
Branch: U.S. Navy
Rank: CMM
Service Number: 2655751
Status: Lost at Sea
Inscription
CMM, US NAVY WORLD WAR II
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