Commander, US Navy. he attended Duke University in Durham, North Carolina (1954 - 1958). On May 10, 1972 he launched with his radar intercept officer, Lt. Stephen A. Rudloff in their F4J Phantom on a flak suppression mission against the Guan Lang Airfield in North Vietnam. After effectively hitting two anti-aircraft positions, Commander Blackburn was engaging an enemy MiG aircraft when his aircraft was hit by ground fire, forcing Blackburn and Rudloff to eject. Other aircraft confirmed both men had ejected safely with good parachutes, and landed several hundreds of yards apart. Both men were initially listed as Missing in Action, later changed to captured. Rudloff never saw Blackburn again after his capture, despite assuming he was being interrogated in the next room. He was released as a POW in 1973, but Blackburn was not, nor did his name appear on any list provided by the Vietnamese. On April 10, 1986, the Vietnamese returned remains they had "discovered" which were positively identified as being those of Blackburn. The exact cause and date of Blackburn's death remains unclear.