View source for Paul Henry Blackmon

{{Infobox person|birth_name=Paul Henry Heacock|birth_place=New Jersey|birth_date=26 August 1928|nationality=American|father=[[Otto B Heacock]]|mother=[[Emily Seaworthy]]|image=File:Screen capture of Paul Henry Blackmon.png}}

[[Paul Henry Blackmon]], born [[Paul Henry Blackmon|Paul Henry Heacock]] was an American who was born in New Jersey, moved to Missouri, went into foster care, and lived on a farm throughout the great depression and WWII. He later went into the service in June 1946, served as patrol duty for a plutonium plant in Washington state, then somewhere in  [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]], discharged in December 1947.<ref name=":0">{{Cite interview |last=Paul |first=Blackman |interviewer=Paul Sidle |title=Interview |url=https://archive.org/details/img-1476_202307 |date=7 July 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1940 |title=Paul H Blackman "United States Census, 1940" • FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K73R-PL5 |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date= |website=FamilySearch}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date= |title=Paul Heacock, "New Jersey, Reclaim the Records, Geographic Birth Index, 1901-1929" • FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6NS7-6T3L |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=20 August 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=26 July 1946 |title=NARA - AAD - Display Full Records - Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records) |url=https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&cat=all&tf=F&q=17201442&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=1478229}}</ref>


https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75356711/otto-b-heacock

https://www.ancestry.com/search/?name=Otto+B_Heacock&event=_Missouri&count=50&name_x=_psx



== Before Birth ==

=== Before August 1928 ===
Before the birth of Paul, came first [[Edward Heacock|Edward]], then the second child, [[Evelyn Heacock|Evelyn]], then [[Leroy Heacock|Leroy]], and then Paul Heacock<ref name=":0" /> . 

== Childhood ==

=== 26 August 1928 - Birth ===
Paul Henry Heacock was born 26 August 1928 in [[Belleville, New Jersey|Belleville]], [[New Jersey]], [[United States]], which was close to [[Newark, New Jersey|Newark]]. He was born to [[Emely Sieworth|Emily Seaworth]] and [[Otto Bertrand Heacock]]. He lived on Main Street of the city<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />.

=== 1929 - The start of the Great Depression ===
In 1929 the Great Depression in the United States began. Due to the fact that Paul's father was minimally educated and that he lost his street conductor job, the Heacock family decided to move back to [[Missouri]]<ref name=":0" />. 

=== Between 1929 and 1930 - Moving to Missouri ===
When Paul was less than around two years of age, the Heacock family moved to the town of [[Poplar Bluff, Missouri|Poplar Bluff]] in [[Butler County, Missouri|Butler County]], Missouri. Because the job situation around was poor, the Heacock family became farmers and so lived on a farm. Housing was almost non-existent<ref name=":0" />. 

=== Between 1930 and 1935 ===
While living on the farm, since Paul was too little, he didn't work any particular job. Otto on the other-hand, was reportedly street-wise, despite not having much education, and apparently could fix and do anything on the farm. Many people also knew Otto that were in the local area. Being the entrepreneur he was, he bought what he said were apple trees and when they were going places from one place to another, he would along the way sell apple trees. Their father was a good provider in food, but it was frogs, fish, and whatnot. Other than that however, he was someone that Paul would come to think later on as probably one of the dumbest guys around. He was a rabbid republican, in a sea of Democrats. Apparently, the government food distribution people were of course democrats, as opposed to the fiery republican.   

Otto had become a functional alcoholic and also had a temper. A [[World War One|WWI]] veteran, he was in France and was attacked with [[mustard gas]] by the [[Germans]], and was exposed to it in the process. How much it affected him isn't known. He barely spoke of his experiences, except for the fact that the Germans sprayed him with mustard gas. 

Otto and  Paul's brother, Edward, didn't get along. One day when he was 16, they got into a fist fight, and so  he left home and went to [[Detroit, Michigan]], probably never seeing each other again. It might have been around this time period or before that when their mother Emily, gave birth to fraternal-twins, [[Pauline Heacock|Pauline]] and [[Edna Heacock|Edna]], who were "different as night and day from one another". His mother was reportedly a "nice jolly fat lady"<ref name=":0" />.Paul doesn't remember much about his mother, and has one picture of her, but she was kind of shorter than he is. He guesses she was wonderful but he doesn't remember.

Paul and his original family (possibly later foster families as well) didn't go to chruch. They weren't of a specific denomination. His mother was a member of an orthodox Jewish family. When she married his father, she was expelled, and so Paul never knew that part of his family. He remembers one grandfather (who would have been Otto's father), who made his own Wisky, other than that not much. Supposedly they came up after the Civil War from Alabama to Missouri.

Paul went to schools within Butler County, what he called possibly [[country schools]]. Paul personally was someone who liked to read, but up until 1940 for him there wasn't much to read for him. Their primary life concern was finding something to eat, a place to sleep, and a place to go to school<ref name=":0" />.  

=== Between 1932 to 1935 - Death of his mother ===
When Paul was around seven years old (although he may have been younger since it was seven or eight years after this before he would see celebrations of the fourth of july in 1940), his mother passed away. After the passing of his mother, the Heacock family disintegrated. Paul, not being consulted, and probably on both the opinion of his father and the state authorities, was told that he was going to be put into the [[Missouri Foster Home Program]], and so started   going in and out of such as well as living with family. Paul only had two pairs of pants, a pair of shoes, and a couple of shoes as his personal belongings. Paul had a "So what?" reaction to news, there was nothing that he could really do. Sometimes Otto would pull the family back together again just for later for them to be separated again. 

Evelyn, probably around this time or afterwards, married young so that she could have a place to live, marrying to an alcoholic who was in the road construction business, driving what is called a "motor patroll", was the grader. Having a great job the two lived well<ref name=":0" />.  

=== 1935 - 1939 - Going through foster homes ===
Paul afterwards went in and out of different foster homes, the amount of which he couldn't count. For the next seven or eight years after his mother died there was no celebration of the Fourth of July at all. Within each foster home, he discovered that the secret to surviving in a home was to be very nice to the lady and don't make waves. The only way he was successful and eating, was to toady up to the woman of the house, be nice to her, do what she wanted him to do. Some of these houses had a dirt floor. 

Occasionally Otto would try to bring the family back together. Paul remembers that his biological father built a one room house with a dirt floor that they lived in because he said that it costed a little over a total of five dollars. He cut the logs down, brought them together, spent the money for nails, and something else. There was a woman involved in it, but Paul wasn't sure it wasn't his mother. For some reason the job or something disappeared<ref name=":0" />.

=== Living with his uncle ===
At one point Paul was able to get into the home of one of his aunts and uncles, [[Ira Heacock]], Otto's brother. Ira happened to be the town policeman, as there wasn't a deputy. He had a pistol and a badge. His wife on the other hand, was blind since she was twelve years old due to an ice skating accident in which she hit something on the back of her head. She had gone to the state blind school, so was able to properly function and read in braille, an overall intelligent woman. By that time both of them were in their fifties.  

Everyone in the town knew Ira, the town policeman. Resulting in this fame was that Paul and Ira were generally able to get into the movies, which happened around once a week, all westerns, as the man who managed the theatre would only put on westerns, charging a dime each to watch. 

Ira also had a 1938 Plymouth Ford. He saved money and didn't have a heater. Paul thinks that it costed $800. They only traveled locally in it. It was a regular passenger car of the 1938 variety and so could go a longer distance. It would go 70-80 mph or more. You were limited at 35 mph if you beat the instructions then you'd get in trouble (he's probably indicating that either Ira or someone else in the locality had broken that speed limit and got in trouble as a result, less likely that Ira did since he was part of the police)

Paul himself got into the local baseball team, and generally would have a dime or two to spend on something<ref name=":0" />. 

=== Around 1938 to 1939 - Going to his last foster home ===
In 1940 there was a couple, [[Laura Bill Hensen]] and [[Lloyd Arch Blackmon]], who lived on a farm in [[Grandin, Missouri]], each farm in that area of which was around two to three miles apart from one another. Lloyd, a fairly intelligent man, was a peacetime army veteran (meaning he served in between the two world wars), and had some kind of service disability as a result, resulting in him being blind. Probably  due to this disability was that he was unable to fully function, and couldn't do physical work, and therefore the management of the farm was done by Laura. From this service he conducted he received a large pension of $140 which they used.

Laura was looking for a baby to probably foster, as she couldn't have any children for some reason, so probably searched for babies around to foster or adopt, but in the end didn't find any. However, she was able to come across a ten year old boy, Paul Heacock. The reason for fostering him wasn't altruistic, as due to Lloyd's inability to do physical work, she might have wanted a man to help on the farm, and so possibly thought that this ten year old boy could help. At the time that she found Paul, it is likely that she also found his twin sisters Paul and Edna, as they went along with him into his new home<ref name=":0" />.  

=== 1940 to 1946 - Last foster home Paul lived in ===
Due to the fact that Paul was born in August 1928, and that it was given that he was ten years old when Laura found him, it might have been that he was found by her around over a year before, and was only able to get into his new foster home once he was around twelve or eleven. He moved into the Blackmon home along with his fraternal twin sisters. 

In any case, at their new foster home, Paul's last name was changed to Blackmon, despite not being adopted by them.

Due to, probably in part, Lloyd's large pension, the Blackmon family was able to live relatively well. They had everything they wanted to eat, of which they were able to brew on the stove. Fried chicken was more of a delicacy, so normally potatoes, beans, and some meat were eaten. Possibly as a result of not having electricity, Lloyd had a radio that he would keep on which was powered by a windmill on top of the house. On the radio, it was generally whatever Lloyd wanted to listen to as the rest were generally not in the house and instead working.  At night there was Fibber McGee and Molly. Bob Hope and Bing Cosby were also popular. Paul always liked to listen to music, it was the era of big bands. There'd be a big band from New York, Chicago, new Orleans, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. They listen to a lot of them, although not remembering their names. They were still good enough programs to listen to on the radio. Paul is a fan of classical music. <!-- I think here he is talking about western (country) music from that era, but making a joke that would more appear later within the 60s onwards -->He also likes outlaw westerns. "The kind where you play the record backwards and get your wife back and you get your car back, that sort of thing, get your job back". Paul generally favored a different type of music.

<!-- The wording inputted here is weird so go check back at around 20:30 first video -->The family also had farming equipment as well as a car, and every Sunday the family would receive a newspaper, one in which Paul would read. 

Unlike some of the other foster homes that he was in, and especially when his father reunited the family occasionally, his current home was a stable one. It was probably helped by the fact that Paul wasn't a kid that would get involved in kinds of trouble. 

Of course, being the only boy/man in the household that could work on the farm (along with his sisters), Paul's job on the far was everything. There was a horse barn, and in it the horses were required to do all the planting and things related to that, so Paul knew how to manage the horses. He could manage them, drive, plow, among other things. But he never learned to ride a horse, since he was afraid of horses, the fear going on afterwards for decades<!-- Twice around this time he uses the word "hornace" as some sort of verb or activity. Can't find any info on it, 28:40 first video -->. He had something to do with hay bails, as he was at some point able to  lift a 100lb bail of hay. Other than this job on the farm, outside of it he had no job in the town or the surrounding area. 

Generally they had a man called a hired man who refurnished the house and a place where he could grow garden, he'd have a cow, that sort of thing. They paid him a dollar a day, plus furnishing a home, a place to live, a a pig or two to grow up and then butcher. He did most of the heavy work.

A typical day for Paul on the farm started at around 5:00 or 5:30 in the morning. Paul would, feed the horses, water the horses, and eat breakfast. Whether you were working out or not depended on the weather, if you were cutting hay, grass clings together so it doesn't dry when you're spreading it out, so he'd have to wait until the dew gets absorbed into the atmosphere.

The government never forced the Blackmon family to give up any of their farm products. The reason they weren't forced so was because they were too small of a farm. Bigger farms however had their stuff forcefully given over. Paul and his family were self-sufficient except for the things that were grown in South America. In fact, none of FDR's programs that were implemented had any effect on Paul at all. He was too young for the WPA. He wasn't old enough to get into the Young peoples building trails and things and parks, and so was never involved in any things like that.

Paul remembers many shanty towns that were around. He did make friends with some of the residents but not lasting friendships. This was normally due to Paul's frequent movement from one family and one foster home to another.  

Paul went to his local high school, [[Grandin Consolidated]]. It was housed at a works progress administration during the depth of the depression. The government sent out young people, they built things and were paid a certain amount per month. They needed jobs and that was basically the only things they built, trails, parks, and that sort of thing. During this time and in the past, he would make friends from school, but they would all drift away.  

The one thing that he overly enjoyed was reading. Compared to the other kids who weren't interested in going to school, Paul was enamored with going there and also reading. It was one of those things that he doesn't recall of how exactly he got into, he thought that it might have been his biological mother reading to him when he was little, although he doesn't remember such. He always read the aforementioned Sunday paper that arrived at their house, and would read the comics to his blind foster father. 

Other than that, he would read anything he could find. He didn't have a particular favorite type of thing to read, although maybe westerns somewhat filled that role. Personally for him there were no classics. Instead of a reader who scanned pages, Paul was one who took more of his time and retained much more of the information. 

In school, Paul was blessed and "whats the other word, the bad part of not having to study", he was able to read a book once, and he was overjavel, Validictorian in his school, editor of the yearbook, those types of things, but was a small school. There was no journalist kind of club. They had a music teacher, a retired something, they hired her as music teacher, she did a lot of stuff, plays and that sort of thing. [[Mrs. Greezefilter]]. During history class at his school, the information presented was in the same unengaging way that many other places teach history do, such as in making students memorize dates and such. Paul however, saw through that stuff, and read some of the things that happened in history and was able to appreciate it more.  

Along with reading things, in school he was interested in repairing radios and stuff. Someone who inspired him in gaining interest in those things was a kid whose last name was McKinney, whose family were power brokers in town. At some time later on McKinney graduated as an electrical engineer, and that was Paul's beacon, to become some sort of electrical engineer.   

In terms of Germany and their gains early in the war, they didn't know enough about the politics of Europe (him, his family, and others assumed), so that was a blur when it came to that subject. Paul had studied a little Geography, and so knew more about the Pacific than he did of Europe. In school there were some National Geographic or some other monthly magazine that would show off the Pacific islands, which Paul would have studied.  

The games that he really only played in his life at the time were sports games at his high school. He played Basketball and was also part of the softball team. He was never really good at them, too short for basketball, and was mediocre at baseball. In basketball him and his team got to play other highschools, but he was always on the back bench. He was probably as tall as he would be in the future (2023). He doesn't remember anyone specifically from those teams. He joined the teams because they were the only things he could really do, and also because he was physically strong, being able to lift a 100lb bail of hay. He wasn't one to sit and do anything. 

Paul was kind of a shy kid, and so he never really got a girlfriend or anyone like that in school. There was no place to go in a small little town that he was in, with around 240 people in it. They had a bank and a post office. The town of Grandin from 1890 to 1920, about 30 years, had 6000 people, the largest saw mill in the world, cutting old road pine trees. It had a water supply in it as well. It had the largest saw mill in the world. There was that much old ruth pine trees in Missouri and in that part of the world, that they had their own narrow gage railroad, and that there they picked it up and moved it to wherever as they could it. They loaded it on the railroad, and drove it to the sawmill, and the sawmill had a five acre pond, the logs were unloaded, never stopped, drove on to the dike. When Paul got there it was closed, but the history was explained and written up. He saw the pond and that sort of thing. As the timber was depleted, the picket up the railroad and moved probably a hundred miles, within a hundred mile radius of the saw mill. 

On the side of politics, Paul wasn't really into politics, more specifically not having political opinions. He remembers hearing about it on the radio and in the newspaper, but never saw the government food himself. Paul knew FDR did fireside chats but doesn't remember the speeches themselves. He was sure that they listened to them but were too long to comprehend<ref name=":0" />. 

==== 4 July around 1940 - 1946 ====
Other than reading and having been able to go to the movies before, on the farm there wasn't very much entertainment. There was however, the Fourth of July celebrations. In the county that they lived in, there was a central place in town where people came together. People would ask the question around that time to other people<ref name=":0" />:<blockquote>Are you going to the fourth?</blockquote>This was in reference of whether they were coming to the central gathering to celebrate or not. At this central gathering there was always people there with a fifty pound solid block of ice so there were cold things to be had, people dancing, and a bit of drinking (alcohol). To Paul they were fun, as there were a lot of things a kid could do. They would bring the block of ice (or more presumably, a part of it) home and make ice cream and bake cookies, and that was about it. Those kinds of things were a delicacy at the time. One time, Paul ate too much ice cream with cookies. It was the sickest he had ever gotten. He went under a tree and fell asleep for what he thought was about three hours<ref name=":0" />. 

==== 31 October around 1940 - 1946 - Halloween ====
Due to the fact that the farms around him were spread out (each farm being around two to three miles apart) and the fact that he didn't really get involved in troublesome activities, Paul didn't participate in Halloween. Apparently turning over one's outhouse was a thing that people would do during Halloween, among other things, but again he never participated in those activities<ref name=":0" />.  

==== December 1940 - Paul's first Christmas in a long time ====
Since Paul had gone into foster care, he hadn't been able to have a single Christmas. Then in this new foster family that he was in, the Blackmon family, he finally got a chance once again to have a traditional Christmas, with what would have been a Christmas tree, presents, among other things. 
Back when gas was 15 cents a gallon, his foster mother told him that she was at a store (this was in early fourties, so it is possible that this happened his first Christmas at the Blackmon home or possibly not). A woman came into the store to see the store manager and asked<ref name=":0" />:<blockquote>I have a dime, how much candy can I buy for my children for Christmas?</blockquote>Paul himself didn't have a particular preference in candy, anything that was sweet<ref name=":0" />.

==== 7 to 11 December 1941 - The attack on Pearl Harbor and American entry into the war ====
Before American entry into the war, the opinion of the time generally was to stay home and not get involved in the war. Paul isn't sure he feel this way, but his full opinion on the matter at this time wasn't as clear.

Paul and the Blackmon family heard about the attack on [[Pearl Harbor]] over the radio. As a result they weren't very fond of the Japanese people. Then afterwards everything would change. 

Everyone around including Paul didn't really have a reaction to the German declaration of war on the US, as it didn't really sink in what that really meant, just that it was more groups were fighting. Despite this, they weren't confident that America could fight, as there was quite a bit of pessimism in Paul's general area<ref name=":0" />. 

==== 1941 to 1945 - Life under the war ====
Due to Paul's closer study of the Pacific with things such as the National Geographic magazine at school, he was more informed about the different islands, where they were, Peleliu, Guam, Truk, among others. By this time he was a little older and so was more able to appreciate and understand what was happening. The one thing that he was amazed about were the distances between those islands, something he never took into consideration. On his maps he saw, the distances between the islands and places were minuscule, within the length of a finger. In reality however, they were thousands of miles apart. He remembers the Battle of Midway, Guadalcanal, etc and was impressed by the distances that were involved. Although for Midway and others there wasn't much information and detail as to what happened to the public.  His reaction to the D-Day landings was that he could appreciate the scale, and the things that could go wrong. He guesses that it was detached, given the scale of the landings. Later on, when the info became more available, he appreciated it more. Despite receiving these pieces of news, he wasn't really a deep thinker about them. During that time there was a lot more information to go around for some reason, and so Paul had more access to it. More papers, radio, different types of radio, not just local AM stations, among maybe others. As for the propaganda, by the time that it got to Paul, his family, and the other farmers around, it was pretty sparse, but saw some of it. The farmers were pretty unable to distinguish them though. 

He had at least heard about people in his area that were drafted for the war, but either forgot or never really knew their names. He possibly heard about two or three being killed.

Following the news throughout the war would cause anger in him, particularly in the way that things had happened. This involved the Japanese philosophy of if you ain't like us then we'll drown you and kill you.

As it was in war time, everything was rationed. Being on the farm, they had more stuff (not necessarily getting to grow their own stuff), all the tires they wanted, they could buy all the sugar they wanted, all the gas they wanted, it was much better living under the rationing for the Blackmon family. If you had a little income, your life was better off at this time it seemed. With the $140 a month pension that Lloyd had, they were paying 15 cents a gallon, could buy a lot of gasoline for 140 dollars. They had a more of everything themselves, they could more specifically buy more of everything, they didn't suffer.

Along with that, they worked harder on the farm. They built a hen house which made a lot of eggs for the war effort. In general they had more material things, and the war lifted them out of the last stages of the depression, so they had a lot more of everything. They never sold off stuff to the government and military for the war effort. They grew pigs for a while, shipping them off to the stock yard, which might have been part of the war effort or not, but were paid for the pigs according to their weight. They were canning stuff, and needed a lot of outside help generally. If any flour was available they could make their own bread, and could make their own stuff if material was available. Other than that Paul never really thought much about  the war effort. 

Being four years younger, his sister never entered the workforce for the war effort or anything like that, but stayed in school throughout the war. 

Paul followed the war progress throughout even within the first six months after Pearl Harbor. As he was listening and hearing the news he was amazed how much he didn't know, He had a map (or maps) that were smaller in size, hand-held, and so he never realized that the small looking distances on the maps were thousands of miles apart. He couldn't understand it, parts of it you could understand, but the strategy you could not. 

Then there was the surrender of Germany and Japan and the atomic bomb, ending the war, in which Paul remembers. The thing is is that the armistice was signed in September of 1945, but the peace treaty wasn't made until the year after the following year, so Paul could join up and still receive benefits. 

Paul personally didn't have any celebration not even on the farm for the end of the war. He neither drank alcohol nor smoked. Paul was basically an outsider. He didn't drink because of his grandfather and father. They were functioning alcoholics, but they certainly didn't live up to what a little more education would have done for them<ref name=":0" />. 

=== June 1946 - Entering service in the United States Army ===
In June 1946 Paul decided that he wanted to enter into the service of the [[United States Army]] in order to get the benefits from the [[G.I. Bill]], which was the only way he was wondering that he could go to college<ref name=":0" />. 1946 the army was imaging people and they would take almost anything. As mentioned before, since the peace treaty wasn't to be signed until 1 January 1947, he would be still constituted as a WWII veteran. 

Pail decided to not go in the marines since that would take four years. The army said you can sign up for 18 months, 24 months, 30 months, 36 months, or 48 months. The thing that was the decision maker for him was that if you served there for over a month, they would pay one month of schooling for every month that one stayed in the army. That was relaxed later on.  

Paul enlisted at [[Jefferson Barracks Military Post|Jefferson Barracks]] in Missouri, which was just outside of [[Saint Lewis, Missouri|Saint Lewis]]. The collection point was at [[Fort Leavenworth]]. At the collection point they were shipped off to [[Fort Lewis]], just outside of [[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma]], [[Washington]], and from there to Tacoma, where they did basic training, which he thought wasn't tough at all. At the end of their basic training they had a meeting, and wanted volunteers, not saying for what exactly. It was either volunteering or having to go to Korea as a rifleman. Paul said that he doesn't want to become a rifleman, and so volunteered for whatever it was he was volunteering for.  

He would find out that the thing he volunteered for was a special weapons project, and his job would be to guard the exterior portion of the land around the atomic bomb plant that made the plutonium, which was being run by [[General Electric]], and the base sat at the confluence of the [[Snake river|Snake]] and [[Columbia river|Columbia]] rivers in [[Richland, Washington|Richland]], Washington. GE ran their own inside the fence security. Paul and a detached official military police company of about 600 men, who had their own bells and whistles, patrol air force, guarded the plant, which were on many unknown amount of acres of farmland that the government forcefully took from the farmers, telling them that they needed to move away, so that they could ensure the safety and guard the plant. Paul would later learn that there were [[Nike missile]] [[Missile silo|silos]] there, and they had a whole bunch of stuff. Although it was a military police unit, Paul didn't have the MP armband.The guards, air force, etc there had no combat. They had a [[motorpool]] there as well, and a couple of Jeeps for patrolling. Despite the not-so-large company, they had their own supply.  

The headquarters was across the Columbia river in a farm house that had been taken over. Each tour duty was two weeks. They also had food brought in and that sort of thing. It was an easy life, they were woken up in the morning, but they weren't as stern with them as normal soldiers.  

At first Paul was only a PFC, but still carried out patrols. The rest of the group were recruits so he was in charge of them. They went out on patrol on a Jeep and he had control of the [[M1 carbine|carbine]], and saw a coyote. He doesn't know what prompted him to do it, but he tried shooting once at the coyote. Unfortunately for him he was too far away and so it didn't kill him. 

The supply room provided irons, but the problem was was that some of the men liked to unplug the irons by yanking on the cables. In that era however, the wires weren't encapsulated in plastic, and so the wire would separate, leading to someone to having to reconnect the wire to the iron. Unfortunately, nobody knew how to do it, and the supply room couldn't resupply them, and so were wanting irons. Paul on the other hand, knew how to reconnect him, four or five irons reconnected later, and he was promoted to corporal. They wanted to know if he wanted to be in the supply room, as the [[Table Organization|TO]] (Table Organization) called for a corporal to manage the supply room, and he said yes to it, and thats also how he got promoted. To him it was an easy job.  

Paul doesn't remember almost anyone in his service. There was a guy from [[Lake Charles, Louisiana|Lake Charles]], [[Louisiana]], that he kept track of for a while but he doesn't remember his name. He was a rabbid southerner. He would say<ref name=":0" />:<blockquote>Them damn n...s!</blockquote>He was a true southern gentleman, but thats the only guy he remembered.   

During his service he did letters home but not often. Most of the letters there were just<ref name=":0" />:   <blockquote>I am fine, how are you?    </blockquote>He didn't ever have any letters censored. In late 1946 everything was calm and cool. He did have a [[Q Clearance]], which was an atomic energy clearance for being there in the locality, never knowing what exactly he was going to see. If he were to talk to someone about it he would have to say<ref name=":0" />:   <blockquote>Whatever I tell you I have to kill you.    </blockquote>He was prohibited from flying out of the country for the next 20 years. He was fine by it since he didn't travel until he was a long time after that.   

There was no bond ever in the companies he was in, which was partly because Paul was always a loner.   

Apparently on his level of where he was at in the military, people would drink and smoke, being a big thing in the military it seemed. Paul however, being the outsider and non-alcoholic, didn't drink nor smoked<ref name=":0" />.      

They then did basic training. At the end of basic training they had a meeting, "the bullet of worth those full of things"? , and they wanted volunteers, not saying for hat, other option was going to Korea as a rifleman.   

== Adulthood ==

=== 26 August 1946 - Becoming an adult ===
On 26 August 1946, Paul turned 18 and therefore became an adult. It probably was sometime before this when he graduated from Grandin Consolidated, graduating as his class' valedictorian<ref name=":0" />.  

=== 1 January 1947 ===
On 1 January 1947, the peace treaty between the United States and the Japanese Empire was made<ref name=":0" />. 

=== Around June 1947 ===
After the year in service he got a thirty day leave. So he went home, taking  four days to ride the train from Tacoma Washington to Poplar Bluff Missouri. Beautiful scenery. He went to his foster home. He hated his father because he couldn't keep them together. 

After being at the GE plant for a year, someone or some people above him decided that either they didn't need a patrol or someone else would take over, so they closed their part of the plant, and he and his company were moved to the company to [[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]], [[Albuquerque, New Mexico|New Mexico]]. The MP place he was at a combination commercial and air force airport. They were in that area. They had searchlights on towers to check the boundaries of our part and their part, the civilian part. He was put into a regular MP department.  
Despite not receiving training on the specific guard duty that he was given, and being supposed to have been put into supply, he was put out wearing a helmet and pistol, assigned to the front gate, which was were all the traffic was. One night, they had nurses were at the hospital. Two nurses came in with two lieutenants from an airfield. The nurses had passes to get in but the two lieutenants didn't. They didn't help Paul one bit. What he was supposed to do was to call up Sergeant of the guard, say<ref name=":0" />: <blockquote>I've got a problem up here come help me. </blockquote>It didn't dawn on Paul to do that since he had no training, and so he told them they couldn't come in. Therefore the nurses finally just said<ref name=":0" />: <blockquote>Well, we'll just walk home </blockquote>Thats what they did. The major who was in charge of the nurses, came in on glue at Paul. She convened a hearing a month later to have one of his stripes removed. They had the meeting, Paul didn't get up, he told his lawyer<ref name=":0" />: <blockquote>Hey I'm dumb as a stump, they didn't train me anything.  </blockquote>Paul didn't hear anything except you keep your stripe, they didn't tell him what happened, who did what to whom, he didn't know who got up in front of anyone to talk about it. The lawyer claimed that these people who were in charge of this outfit didn't do proper training, he noted it was their fault. Paul didn't want to be an MP he wanted to go into the "?Narcotics" area.The upside was he kept his stripe. He would suggest the captain and his sergeant had reprimand letters in their folder, because they didn't train him sufficiently. They didn't train him at all to be on that thing. 

He doesn't remember any of the names of the nurses or the lieutenants. He saw them only twice at the moment and the hearing.  A laywer told him later that two companies were fighting over Paul as just another blob, and the MPs won. These two companies were in Albuquerque, New Mexico<ref name=":0" />. 

=== December 1947 - Discharged from service ===
In December 1947 Paul was discharged from service<ref name=":0" />.

=== Between September 1948 and 1955 - Going to college ===
In September 1948 Paul got fully out of the service and enrolled into the [[University of Missouri]], at first enrolling to become an [[Electrical engineering|electrical engineer]] because of MicKinney.  He couldn't have gone to [[Yale University|Yale]], it was too expensive. He could have probably gone to [[Standford University|Standford]], because at the time they were sucking in all the veterans. However, Paul found a flaw in his thinking. He wasn't able to get his head around 

DC machinery, the only class he ever flunked in college. Paul said to himself<ref name=":0" />:  <blockquote>well I think I understand Physics a little more than I do that particular part of electricity </blockquote>Because of that,  he switched over into Physics, and he was already into math, and so when he graduated with a bachelors degree, it was just natural for him to just follow along into it. They didn't have a PhD program at that department, but he graduated with a masters degrees in [[Physics]] and [[Mathematics]]. 

While he was in college, the Army paid for his education the full way through. In 1955 he graduated from the university with said degree in Physics and Mathematics<ref name=":0" />.  

==== 1950 - The Blackmon family separates ====
Paul was with his family until this year in 1950, when his sister graduated high school. That same year, Paul had gone from a Freshman, Sophmore, to a Junior in college, and Laura wanted him to teach school for a year. In order to teach, they said they'd hire him if he went to summer school to get a teachers permit, and so he did. In geography class, he saw this beautiful farm girl named [[Elma Joyce Ham]]. Nine months later they were married. Before they had been too far apart and so didn't know one another. She also had a member of her high school who was entombed in the [[USS Arizona|''USS Arizona'']] when it was sunk at Pearl Harbor. They have been to Pearl Harbor and seen the name of that high school kid while visiting there. He doesn't remember his name. 

That same year, the [[Korean War]] began. Paul never reconsidered reenlisting for things like the Korean war and afterward. He did not like the military. He didn't hate it, but he wouldn't voluntarily do it. He was offered a sergeant's job if he would enlist for three years, but of course turned it down<ref name=":0" />. 

==== 1953 - First child ====
In 1953 the couple had their first born child<ref name=":0" />.  

==== 1955 - Second child ====
In 1955 the couple had their second child<ref name=":0" />.  

=== 1955 onwards ===

==== 1957 - Third child ====
In 1955 the couple had their second child.  
To his kids, one of them had apparently asked<ref name=":0" />: <blockquote>What did you do in the war daddy?</blockquote>
He would then proceed to tell them about the story of him being on patrol and shooting the coyote<ref name=":0" />. 

==== 1964 - reconciling with his biological father ====
For the longest time, Paul had hated his father. In 1964, his wife had been after him over it telling him<ref name=":0" />:<blockquote>Hey get over it.</blockquote>As a result, he finally took the advice and forgave him, forgave himself, and anyone else that wanted to be forgiven. Ever since he started being a better person.

After Edward, his brother, moved out Paul only saw his brother two or three times before he passed away.

Many years after his childhood Paul went back to Poplar Bluff and found many residence saying that they knew his father Otto and that he had a son Paul.

He had five siblings that survived that time period, having no idea how many that weren't alive afterwards<ref name=":0" />.

==== Traveling around the world ====
He got 9000 travel pictures, he's not in a single one because he was the single one taking the pictures. He had been all over the world, all seven continents, been to 47 different countries. He rode a train across Russia from Moscow to Pacific Ocean. Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe, Cape Town, across Australia, across Canada. Traveled quite a bit. He even went to Antartica 21 days on a Russian ice breaker. In a tour setting, that went from Ushuaia, Argentina onto Tierra del fuego over to New Zealand. That was in 2005. He had been to Europe probably 10 times, he knows about London that he could go on the underground to wherever he wants to go. Vienna was his favorite city. He could live there during the summer time, it was a fantastic city. The two places he would live in that he'd like to live in are Oxford England and Vienna Austria<ref name=":0" />.

==== 7 July 2023 - Interview ====
On 7 July 2023 Paul was interviewed at his residential retirement home in [[Conroe, Texas|Conroe]], [[Texas]]. 

He noted that History buffs know that the war didn't end until the peace treaty was signed in 1 January 1947. That is why he is considered a WWII veteran.

He had also seen the Band of Brothers TV show.
   
His name is on the park in Conroe as a WWII guy, was going to join the local VFW post since they wanted a WWII vet and so convinced him to join
   
He wants people to remember that they did what they had to do and they had to do it. He said wasn't a star player in it, but he was a participant that openly helped.

He also thinks that the Greatest Generation fits pretty well as a name, and that they should be remembered as the Greatest Generation<ref name=":0" />. 

== Citations ==
<references />

== Bibliography ==

* {{Cite interview |last=Paul Henry |first=Blackman |interviewer=Paul Sidle |title=Interview with Paul Blackman |url=https://archive.org/details/img-1476_202307 |date=7 July 2023}}
* {{Cite web |date=1940 |title=Paul H Blackman "United States Census, 1940" • FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K73R-PL5 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820175803/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K73R-PL5 |archive-date=20 August 2023 |access-date=20 August 2023 |website=FamilySearch}}
* {{Cite web |date=26 August 1928 |title=Paul Heacock, "New Jersey, Reclaim the Records, Geographic Birth Index, 1901-1929" • FamilySearch |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6NS7-6T3L |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820180507/https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6NS7-6T3L |archive-date=20 August 2023 |access-date=20 August 2023 |website=20 August 2023}}
* {{Cite web |date=26 July 1946 |title=NARA - AAD - Display Full Records - Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records) |url=https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&cat=all&tf=F&q=17201442&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=1478229 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230820201632/https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&cat=all&tf=F&q=17201442&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=1478229 |archive-date=20 August 2023 |access-date=20 August 2023 |website=Access to Archival Databases National Archives}}

[[Category:Biographical Articles]]