'Pete' heard of the Pearl Harbor Bombing while he was attending the University of Illinois. Like others of the Greatest Generation, he felt the call to duty and wasted no time in enlisting to serve his country.

Leiutenant Blackford served with the 429th Bomber Squadron, 2nd Bomber Group, Heavy. On July 16, 1943, Lt. Blackford (pilot) and his crew loaded their plane at Ain M'Lalia, Algeria, with twelve 500 pound fully armed bombs for a mission to bomb San Giovanni, Italy. When his B17 Bomber took off in formation, the aircraft experienced engine trouble and Lt. Blackford steered the plane away from the base so as to avoid potential casualties on the ground. The plane went down in the desert, exploding eleven of the bombs and killing the crew. This crash was instrumental in influencing the US Army Air Corp to re-evaluate their operational procedures. Henceforth, bombs would not be armed till the aircraft was over the target.

Lt. Blackford is buried at North Africa American Cemetery
Carthage, Tunisia, Plot I Row 11 Grave 10.
He was awarded the Air Medal and Purple Heart.

His daughter, 247th US District Court Judge Bonnie Crane Hellums (retired) was one month old at the time of her father's death. He was deployed overseas when she was born.
She never met her father.
He was taken too soon.

Hear Bonnie tell her father's story on the Library of Congress Veterans History Project:
Newton Storey Blackford Collection