Doug McBlair U. S. Navy 1963-1966

Biography of Doug McBlair by Paxon Sanborn, Brenden Purvis, and Sawyer Zimmer

“Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult,” stated Doug McBlair.

We had the privilege to interview Doug McBlair, a Navy veteran who served in the Vietnam War. Doug is Sawyer Zimmer’s grandfather.

Doug was born on January 26, 1945, in Glen Elder, Kansas, to Roy and Verene McBlair. Doug grew up near Glen Elder on a farm. In his youth he loved to hunt and fish.

Doug went to school until the age of seventeen when he joined the service. After high school, Doug was then sent to San Diego, California, for basic training where the men were shown how to be sailors and learn to swim. After basic training, Doug was sent to Jacksonville, Florida, for Aviation Ordinance school where he was taught to fuse and load bombs. Doug then was sent to board the USS-Ranger in California, but when Doug and the other sailors arrived, the ship was gone, so they flew to Japan and boarded there. Doug told us he actually had to fly to four different places including California, the Philippines, and Okinawa before boarding the carrier.

Once Doug boarded the Navy ship, he had very little free time. Doug was then sent back to the U. S. where he started nuclear training, which helped him learn how to handle nuclear weapons and load them. After nuclear training, he was sent to China Lake, Nevada for training on MK-4 gun pods. Next, he went to Fallon, Nevada, for gunner training on helicopters. Then he returned to the ship for regular duty.

The USS-Ranger that Doug served on was 1,070 feet long, 365 feet wide, and fifteen stories high. The carrier held ninety planes and 5,200 men.

When sailors join the Navy, their nickname is Pollywog, but once they cross the equator, they become a Shellback in the Navy. Shellback is a term of respect to the crew because the older crewmates picked on the younger men. Doug became a Shellback while he served in the Navy.

Right before Vietnam, Doug went on a spy mission for the Navy in 1964 and only had three planes, one helicopter, and no escort ships; there were usually ninety-two planes, four helicopters, and seven escort ships. The mission was to fly a drone over Panama to see what their military looked like.

Doug later went on leave for what was supposed to be three weeks but was called back early because the Vietnam War had started. The sailors first sailed to Hawaii to obtain ammunition and food stores. Doug then went to the Philippines for more ammunition and food stores. While loading the ammunition and food stores, the carrier received a shipment of photo flash bombs with the wrong tail fins. One of the officers tried to convince the sailors that they could drill into the bombs without them going off, so the officer took the sailors to the pier by the ship and tried drilling into a bomb. It then went off and the bomb incinerated the officer. After that, Doug and his crew finally set sail for Vietnam.

While in Vietnam, there was a cable that caught planes when they landed. When one plane landed, the cable broke and cut one of the sailors into two pieces, which Doug witnessed. When Doug and the other sailors arrived in Vietnam, the carrier USS-Ranger was on the front lines, and they had catapults that launched planes loaded with the ordinance for bomb strikes against the enemy. Later, Doug went to Hong Kong to recuperate and then went back to Vietnam for another ninety-one days. Doug spent two tours in Vietnam.

After the war, Doug was discharged from the Navy. He went home to San Francisco, California, and worked as an auto mechanic. He married Darlean Wakefield and had two children, Rob and Julie McBlair. He then later moved to Fort Collins, Colorado, got divorced, married Linda Mullins, and they had two daughters, DeAnna and Delycia McBlair. Later on, they divorced, and Doug married Sandra Wells, who had three children of her own, David, Troy, and Tracy. Together, Doug and Sandra have sixteen grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren.

When asked what freedom means, Doug replied, “Freedom is our rights, and I served in the Navy to help protect those rights.”

We thank Doug for his service to our country and for helping to protect our rights.