Family gives WWII Museum fighter pilot's Medal of Honor
By JANET McCONNAUGHEY Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS — Only weeks before he died, a retired fighter pilot who shot down five Japanese planes during the Battle of Guadalcanal and his family decided that the National World War II Museum should have his Medal of Honor. On Thursday, the 65th anniversary of that firefight, the museum formally unveiled the medal and related items donated by the family of Col. Jefferson DeBlanc, who was a lieutenant in the Marines and barely in his 20s on Jan. 31, 1943. Until his death on Thanksgiving, he was the last surviving recipient of the medal from World War II in Louisiana, said Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller, president and CEO of the museum. Barbara DeBlanc Romero told an audience of about 150 that her father showed off and bragged about medals he won in the Senior Olympics, but kept the Medal of Honor in its box, bringing it out only if someone asked to see it. "He never, ever, ever, bragged about it," she said. She said her father felt that the Medal of Honor "was never his alone, but belonged to all the soldiers who fought to keep our country free."
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