Early Life
Oakes was born in 1925. He served in World War II as a fighter pilot and graduated from Yale University. Oakes is an engineer by training (at one point in the series, he is hired by an architectural firm), and Anthony Trust, ahead of Black at both Greyburn and Yale, recruits him for the Central Intelligence Agency in his senior year, 1951.
At Yale, Blackford is older than most of his classmates due to his military service. Reference is made to his membership on both the swimming and lacrosse teams there, and he is a member of Zeta Psi fraternity. Sally Partridge, a Smith graduate, is his main love interest throughout the series. Their fateful meeting and Blackford's courtship of Sally is detailed in one of the later novels.
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