GAINESVILLE – Former Marine Jeff Blackwell now works as Sales Manager for Vexter Pest Control. Beehive Homes in Gainesville is one of his clients. If Blackwell isn’t talking about army ants or termites he loves to talk about the U.S. military.
On a recent visit to the personal care/assisted living facility on Enota Drive, Beehive Homes Director Nanya Parikh asked Blackwell if he knew of any veterans groups that might like to visit one of their residents, 94-year-old Commander William L. Hartman, U.S. Navy Retired.
Beehive Homes has been open since October and connecting the community to the residents at Beehive is a high priority for Parikh.
“He (Blackwell) asked me, ‘What are you planning for the Fourth of July?’” Parikh said.
“I answered, ‘A barbeque.’”
Parikh said Blackwell called her back several days later and said, “Let’s make this an event.”
Blackwell contacted the U.S. Navy through their Dawsonville Highway recruiting office and the “event” Blackwell suggested began to take shape.
But Blackwell insisted on talking about Hartman and his service to the country. “Hartman was commissioned in World War II as a Lieutenant Junior Grade and he was stateside as a training officer.”
Hartman spent 1943-1947 at the Olathe Naval Air Station in Fairfax Field, Kansas. “He flew various aircraft and he was training,” Blackwell said. Following those years Hartman was discharged but that would change in 1951.
“He was called back up during Korea (War) and was assigned to the USS Valley Forge which was the lone aircraft carrier in that part of the Pacific at the outbreak of Korea,” Blackwell said.
Hartman said he was never shot down despite flying countless sorties but that he did have to make an emergency landing after taking several rounds in his F4U Corsair’s fuselage during the onset of one mission.
“I got hit in one cooler and oil was shooting out,” Hartman said. “I decided to go back and we would splash (ditch aircraft in ocean) but it would be right next to the carrier.”
Fortunately everything went well, Hartman said, and within days he had a new aircraft and resumed his bombing runs over Korea.
Hartman’s sense of humor still sparkles as he told me, “Thank you, sir, for paying your income tax, because of it I got paid.”
Marine Staff Sergeant Rick Whelan and Marine Gunnery Sergeant Scott Amicus from the Gainesville naval recruiting station presented Commander Hartman with a letter of appreciation. Former U.S. Congressman Dr. Paul Broun served as emcee.
