The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Lieutenant Commander John Thomas Blackburn (NSN: 0-72292), United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in operations against the enemy while serving as Pilot of a carrier-based Navy Fighter Plane in Fighting Squadron SEVENTEEN (VF-17), attached to the U.S.S. HORNET (CV-12), while participating in aerial flights against the enemy in the New Britain theater. In thirty-two days Lieutenant Commander Blackburn flew thirty combat sorties, twenty-one of which were escort missions or fighter sweeps over the Rabaul area, and on thirteen of which he encountered enemy aircraft. On 26 January, when the bombers which he was escorting were intercepted by more than fifty enemy fighters, he destroyed one of them. On 30 January the light bombers he escorted were aggressively intercepted by twenty enemy fighters. In repeated attacks he destroyed two of them and probably shot down three more. On 9 February he led a flight of eight Corsairs which found an enemy ship at anchor and sank it with machine gun fire. His outstanding devotion to duty, his heroic conduct against numerically superior enemy forces, his daring and aggressive airmanship were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.