World War II
Going to Hawaii in February 1939, General Blake was communications officer of the 18th Composite Wing. During September 1941, he acted as Communications Officer on the first land-based aircraft flight from Hawaii to the Philippines. This flight was made in B-17 bombers sent to the Philippines as reinforcements and flew a pioneer route - Midway Island; Wake Island; Port Moresby, New Guinea; Darwin, Australia; Clark Field, P.I. All members of the flight were awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
On December 7, 1941, he was base operations officer (in the rank of major) at Hickam Field and was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action that day. He became operations officer, Seventh Air Force Base Command, was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and spent the first months of World War II supervising operation of the airplane ferry route to Australia via Christmas Island - Canton Island - Fiji - New Caledonia.
In October 1942, he shifted back to communications work and commanded Army Airways Communications System in the Pacific for the rest of World War II, with the exception of the period October 1943 to January 1944, when on temporary duty in Alaska where he established the Air Communications Office for Alaska. He was promoted to colonel in November 1942. On August 28, 1945, he accompanied a special 150-man task force into Japan to prepare for airborne occupation troop landings on August 30, 1945.
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