I am trying to confirm and positively identify a pilot from the 104th Observation Squadron, 59th Observation Group from February 1942. He is 1Lt. L. R. Blackburn. He is identified as the pilot who discovered the wreckage of the USS Jacob Jones, DD-130, on the morning of 28 February 1942 about 30 miles SE of Cape May, NJ. At that time the 104th was operating out of Atlantic City, NJ. The 104th Observation Squadron was a Maryland National Guard unit but they have no record of a Lt. Blackburn. They said that he probably joined the unit after the squadron was nationalized after December 7, 1941 and was not from the National Guard. He also does not come up in the National Archives enlistment records. I do not have a service number either, just his name from an account of the sinking of the Jacob Jones. The 104th Observation squadron is identified in a U.S. Navy report on the sinking. If anyone has any knowledge or information on a L. R. Blackburn I'd appreciate the help.
 
Thank you,
Patrick McKeon

Hello ~

Unfortunately, just because you didn't find an enlistment record for 1Lt. L. R. Blackburn, that doesn't mean he didn't have one.

There's an article by genealogist Sharon Tate Moody published in the Tampa Tribune on March 23, 2008 titled Use Caution When Accessing Newly Available Army Records.

In it, she states, "According to the government, more than a third [my emphasis] of the digital enlistment files [online at NARA] contain a scanning error...During World War II, the Army created the original records on IBM punch cards for each enlistee. After the war, it transferred the punch-card records onto microfilm and destroyed the cards...But the scanning mechanism used to move information from punch cards to microfilm was imprecise. It wasn't able to read various characters on the cards and replaced any unreadable character with a blank space. It also incorrectly converted other characters, introducing more mistakes...About 13 percent of the punch cards - 1.5 million - couldn't even be scanned [my emphsis]. So be prepared not to find whoever you're looking for, even though they were World War II Army veterans."

There are further errors that Ms Moody points out, "On the archives site, you'll see pound (or number) symbols (#) in the digital enlistment files. The symbols are substitutes for the blank spaces put into the microfilm copies by the faulty scanning mechanism."

She also points out other imprecisions in the records from her father's own experience having his occupation given as a 'mail carrier', "Before enlisting, he worked for the railroad as a messenger. If you think about the broad categories the government often casts us, it makes sense that a "messenger" became a "mail carrier." It is an excellent example of how genealogists need to question their preconceived notions...Because many World War II veterans have passed on, it's not always possible to directly confirm whether an enlistment file is correct. It's up to us as genealogists - knowing there are mistakes in these records - to find other ways to verify the information."

Her last word of caution, "Remember these are files of Army veterans; servicemen and women who were in the Navy and Marine Corps during World War II aren't included."

Sorry.

from Wikipeda
 
On the morning of 27 February, Jacob Jones departed New York harbor and steamed southward along the New Jersey coast to patrol and search the area between Barnegat Light and Five Fathom Bank. Shortly after her departure, she received orders to concentrate her patrol activity in waters off Cape May and the Delaware Capes. At 15:30 she spotted the burning wreckage of tanker R. P. Resor, torpedoed the previous day east of Barnegat Light; Jacob Jones circled the ship for 2 hours searching for survivors before resuming her southward course. Cruising at a steady 15 knots through calm seas, she last reported her position at 20:00 and then commenced radio silence. A full moon lit the night sky and visibility was good; throughout the night the ship, completely darkened without running or navigation lights showing, kept her southward course.
At the first light of dawn 28 February 1942, undetected German submarine U-578 fired a spread of torpedoes at the unsuspecting destroyer. The deadly "fish" sped unsighted and two "or possibly three" struck the destroyer's port side in rapid succession.
 
 According to her survivors, the first torpedo struck just aft of the bridge and caused almost unbelievable damage. Apparently, it exploded the ship's magazine; the resulting blast sheered off everything forward of the point of impact, destroying completely the bridge, the chart room, and the officers' and petty officers' quarters. As she stopped dead in the water, unable to signal a distress message, a second torpedo struck about 40 feet forward of the fantail and carried away the after part of the ship above the keel plates and shafts and destroyed the after crew's quarters. Only the midships section was left intact.
 
 All but 25 or 30 officers and men, including Lt. Comdr. Black, were killed by the explosions. The survivors, including a badly wounded, "practically incoherent" signal officer, went for the lifeboats. Oily decks, fouled lines and rigging, and the clutter of the ship's strewn twisted wreckage hampered their efforts to launch the boats. Jacob Jones remained afloat for about 45 minutes, allowing her survivors to clear the stricken ship in four or five rafts. Within an hour of the initial explosion Jacob Jones plunged bow first into the cold Atlantic; as her shattered stern disappeared, her depth charges exploded, killing several survivors on a nearby raft. (As had happened to the Jacob Jones (DD-61) in 1917).
 
 At 08:10 an Army observation plane sighted the life rafts and reported their position to Eagle 56 of the Inshore Patrol. By 11:00, when strong winds and rising seas forced her to abandon her search, she had rescued 12 survivors, one of whom died en route to Cape May. The search for the other survivors of Jacob Jones continued by plane and ship for the next 2 days; but none were ever found.
 
Terry T.