Shadow Commander

The Epic Story of Donald D. Blackburn—Guerrilla Leader and Special Forces Hero

Mike Guardia

• Publisher: Casemate
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781612000657
• eBook ISBN: 9781504025041
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military Biographies
• Index: History

The true story of the US Army legend who organized "Blackburn's Headhunters" against Japan in WWII and went on to initiate Special Forces operations in Vietnam.
The fires on Bataan burned on the evening of April 9, 1942—illuminating the white flags of surrender against the dark sky. Outnumbered and outgunned, remnants of the American-Philippine army surrendered to the forces of the Rising Sun. Yet US Army Captain Donald D. Blackburn refused to lay down his arms. With future Special Forces legend Russell Volckmann, Blackburn escaped to the jungles of North Luzon, where they raised a private army of 22,000 men against the Japanese. His organization of native tribes into guerrilla fighters would lead to the destruction of the enemy's naval base at Aparri.
But Blackburn's amazing accomplishments would not end with the victory in the Pacific. He would go on to play a key role in initiating Army Special Forces operations in Southeast Asia, spearheading Operation White Star in Laos as commander of the 77th Special Forces Group and eventually taking command of the highly classified Studies and Observations Group (SOG), charged with performing secret missions now that main-force Communist incursions were on the rise.
In the wake of the CIA's disastrous Leaping Lena program, in 1964, Blackburn revitalized the Special Operations campaign in South Vietnam. Sending reconnaissance teams into Cambodia and North Vietnam, he discovered the clandestine networks and supply nodes of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Taking the information directly to General Westmoreland, Blackburn was authorized to conduct full-scale operations against the NVA and Viet Cong in Laos and Cambodia. In combats large and small, the Communists realized they had met a master of insurgent tactics—and he was on the US side. Following his return to the US, Blackburn was the architect of the infamous Son Tay Prison Raid, officially termed Operation Ivory Coast, the largest prisoner-of-war rescue mission—and, indeed, the largest Army Special Forces operation—of the Vietnam War.
During a period when US troops in Southeast Asia faced guerrilla armies on every side, America had a superb covert commander of its own. This book follows Blackburn through both his youthful days of desperate combat and his time as a commander, imparting his lessons to the new ranks of Army Special Forces.

CHAPTER 1

CALL OF DUTY

The morning sun beat down mercilessly on what little remained of Headquarters Battalion, 12th Infantry, and its commander, First Lieutenant Donald D. Blackburn, knew that time was running out. Crouching behind their hastily dug-in fighting positions, his young Filipinos—inaugural members of the Philippine Army—prepared to open fire on the Japanese landing craft barreling towards the shore. The enemy had been probing their coastal defenses for the past twelve hours, determined to crush the “speed bump” that lay between them and their conquest of the Philippine Islands. As he braced himself for the incoming wave of enemy troops, Blackburn began to wonder how he had gotten himself into this mess, or if he would ever live to tell about it.

The story of Donald Dunwoody Blackburn begins on the idyllic shores of the American Sunbelt. Born on September 14, 1916 in West Palm Beach, Florida, “Don” spent his formative years growing up in the suburbs of Tampa. He never revealed much about his upbringing, other than to say that it was typical of most boys growing up in western Florida. Indeed, the young man dedicated most of his childhood to swimming, sailing, and other nautical pursuits. In many ways, Don Blackburn was also a product of his time—his was the generation raised on the harrowing tales of the Great War, the decadence of the Roaring Twenties, and the bitter hardships of the Great Depression. And, like many young men of his day, he was fervently patriotic. From an early age he admired the sense of duty and patriotism that came with military service. Despite his childhood interest in water borne activities, Don found him self attracted to the culture and life style of the United States Army.

The earliest known photographs of Donald Blackburn: in 1918

The earliest known photographs of Donald Blackburn: 1920. The Donald D. Blackburn Collection

Donald Blackburn’s first grade class, 1923. Blackburn stands in the middle of the second row, just above the girl in the hat. The Donald D. Blackburn Collection

Graduating from Plant High School in 1934, Blackburn announced his decision to enroll in an Army ROTC program. That fall he matriculated at the University of Florida, pursuing a degree in Business with a minor in Military Science. He enjoyed college life, but admitted that “I squeaked by through the skin of my teeth … I just wasn’t motivated towards anything in particular, other than enjoying fraternity life.” Nevertheless, his experiences as an Army cadet validated the passions he had had for soldiering. Excelling in many areas of his cadetship, Don was an active member in the Scabbard & Blade Society, and rose to the rank of Cadet Captain. After serving as an ROTC Company Commander during his senior year, Blackburn graduated in 1938 with a commission as a Second Lieutenant of Infantry.

Although he was an outstanding cadet, the Thompson Act of 1932 ultimately prevented Don from serving on active duty. A hallmark of an isolationist Congress, the Thompson Act limited the number of ROTC graduates who could enter active duty within a certain fiscal year. Unwittingly cast into the Army Reserve, Blackburn decided to make the best of it and begin searching for a full-time job.

Donald Blackburn, 1926.

Senior photo, Plant High School, 1934. The Donald D. Blackburn Collection

As it was throughout most of the Depression Era, the best job opportunities were in the public sector. Coincidentally, Blackburn’s uncle—a pioneer of early avionics—landed him a job with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) in Washington, DC. This job placement was fortuitous as it reunited Don with his former ROTC instructor, Lieutenant Colonel Claude Adams. Adams had just been transferred to the office of the Army Chief of Staff, only a few blocks away from the CAB offices. One summer night in 1940, while enjoying dinner at Adams’ house, Don confessed that although he enjoyed his job at the Aeronautics Board, he regretted not being able to serve on active duty. Hearing this, Adams stopped him and said, “Well, Don, why don’t you do it? Your name, in all probability, will come up for call to active duty this year [1940].”

Shortly before Congress passed the Selective Training and Service Act (the first peacetime draft in American history), the Army had begun calling its Reserve officers into active service for a period of one year—renewable based on national security and manpower needs. Adams, however, cautioned Blackburn, saying that “If your name comes up this year, you’re going to have to drop out of school.” Blackburn had been attending night classes at Georgetown University Law School and, ideally, was to sit for the DC Bar Exam in less than a year. Nevertheless, he looked Adams straight in the eye and said, “I’d just as soon go on active duty.”

Blackburn (back row, far left) as a new member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon—University of Florida chapter, 1934. The Donald D. Blackburn Collection

Blackburn and friends at a college house party, 1936. Said Blackburn of his college days, “I just wasn’t motivated towards anything in particular, other than enjoying fraternity life.” The Donald D. Blackburn Collection

In all, Blackburn had no reason to fear being left out of active service, for the political climate of 1940 was vastly different from what it had been only two years earlier. Isolationism still rang high in halls of Congress, but the ideology was quickly losing steam as Nazi Germany—which had inaugurated another European war on September 1, 1939—advanced on all fronts. For the first time in nearly a quartercentury, the U.S. government authorized a full-scale increase in military spending. Meanwhile, across the pond, the British relied heavily on American logistics in their life-and-death struggle against the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine. Still, many Americans hoped that the war in Europe would run its course without their involvement. The Empire of Japan, at this stage, was of little concern to anyone. Despite its recent aggressions on the Chinese mainland, everyone knew that the Rising Sun would never challenge the U.S. Navy.

In his conversation with Adams, Blackburn expressed a desire to go to Fort Benning, Georgia—the “Home of the Infantry.” According to Blackburn, “It so happened that General Embrick, the CG [Commanding General] of the IV Corps Area located in Atlanta, was in town. Since Adams was in the Chief’s Office, he talked to Embrick and it was arranged that in September—this was then August of 1940—I would receive orders to go to Fort Benning,” orders which assigned him to the 24th Infantry Regiment.

Graduation portrait from the University of Florida, 1938. The Donald D. Blackburn Collection

Assuming his role as a now active duty lieutenant, Blackburn was sent to the Communications School on-post and was appointed as a Battalion Signal Officer. For the first few months at Fort Benning, Don lived the life of a typical bachelor until one night (at a local dance) when he won the affections of a young lady named Ann Smith. The young belle was introduced to him as the girlfriend of one of his former classmates from the University of Florida. But Blackburn, smitten as he was, pursued the young woman until she finally relented. They began dating in November 1940 and by the following summer they had set their marriage date for September 1941. Destiny, however, was about to throw them a curveball.

After returning home from maneuvers in Louisiana, Blackburn discovered that his active duty tour had been extended. He wasn’t surprised. In fact, he had seen it coming. As the situation in Europe deteriorated—along with continuing tension in Asia—there was hardly a Reservist whose tour hadn’t been extended. But shortly afterward, Blackburn recalled that “a notice appeared on the regimental bulletin board asking for volunteers for the Philippines.” He didn’t think about it again until the next day, when Second Lieutenant Harry Kuykendall barged into his tent and asked, “Did you see that?”

“Yes,” Blackburn grumbled.

“Did you volunteer?” Harry asked him.

“Hell no!”

“Neither did I, but I know they’re going to volunteer me.”

“What makes you think so?” Blackburn said.

“It’s just fate.”

Unfortunately, fate cast a grim shadow on Don Blackburn that day, as the next morning he discovered that his name (right alongside Kuykendall’s) was on the list of new officers reassigned to the Philippine Islands.

Newly commissioned Second Lieutenant Blackburn (far left), May 1938. The Donald D. Blackburn Collection

Blackburn was not amused; he couldn’t go to the Philippines, he was getting married. “And I hardly knew where the Philippines were,” he added. Phoning Lieutenant Colonel Adams to tell him the news, Blackburn was surprised when Adams congratulated him on the new posting. An assignment to the Philippine Islands was every soldier’s dream, Adams said. Tropical beaches, warm weather, and the “Pearl of the Orient”—he should be so lucky. And “if anything’s going to happen,” he told Blackburn, “it’s going to happen in Europe, and not in the Philippines.” Be that as it may, Blackburn still had a fiancée. What would this do to his marriage plans?

Consulting with Ann later that night, Don told her, “You’re going to have to hang in there, because I’m not going to marry you with me over there and you over here.” He never mentio...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Front Image
• Title Page
• Contents
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1: Call of Duty
• CHAPTER 2: Off to the Philippines
• CHAPTER 3: The Road to Bataan
• CHAPTER 4: Perilous Journey
• CHAPTER 5: North Luzon
• CHAPTER 6: Against the Tides
• CHAPTER 7: Cagayan Valley
• CHAPTER 8: Combat Operations
• CHAPTER 9: New Beginnings
• CHAPTER 10: Southeast Asia
• CHAPTER 11: SOG
• CHAPTER 12: Son Tay
• Epilogue
• Career Chronology
• Bibliography
• Copyright Page